Leap of Faith, Living Room, 1950s — Archive & Atlas
AA-2026-35E3FC
AA-2026-35E3FC
On the image
A young woman in a white satin formal dress is caught mid-jump in her family's living room, one arm extended toward the venetian blind as though conducting an orchestra only she can hear. She is dressed for a dance or a party, which means someone decided the best record of the occasion would be a jumping photograph — a genre that swept American amateur photography in the 1950s with the cheerful logic that if a moment is worth capturing, it is worth making slightly airborne. The television set beside her is on and glowing its characteristic green-gray, tuned to nothing in particular, present because in a 1950s living room the television was always on. The tiered end table holds a pink ceramic poodle and a china figurine, both of them the absolute summit of mid-decade decorative ambition. She is clearly delighted with herself, which is the correct response to having pulled off a formal gown, a corsage, and two inches of air at the same time — and the camera has frozen exactly the moment before gravity offered its opinion.
Visually related — by likeness
Leap of Faith, Living Room, 1950s. 1954–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-35E3FC. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/leap-of-faith-living-room-1950s.
@misc{aaAA202635E3FC,
title = {Leap of Faith, Living Room, 1950s},
year = {1954–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-35E3FC},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/leap-of-faith-living-room-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Leap of Faith, Living Room, 1950s PY - 1954–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-35E3FC UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/leap-of-faith-living-room-1950s ER -
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