AA-2026-305E71
On the image
On a stone quay somewhere along the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia, three men have sat down with a small child to be photographed, the kind of arrangement that required no discussion because everyone already knew their place — the elder in the brimmed hat on the right, the two younger men flanking the toddler in the middle, the whole tableau composed with the unself-conscious ease of people who did not yet believe that posing for a photograph was a performance.
Across the water, a substantial civic building anchors a small harborfront town backed by limestone mountains still dusted with snow — the unmistakable topography of the Bay of Kotor, where the karst ridges drop almost vertically to the sea. In the 1950s this was socialist Yugoslavia, a country that had recently decided it was neither Soviet nor Western and was quietly getting on with being neither, in towns that had been Venetian, then Austrian, then Italian, then something else, and now this.
The men look entirely comfortable being where they are, which is the one thing that didn't require a political settlement. The child, flanked by all that adult certainty, has the expression of someone who will not remember any of it.
Visually related — by likeness
Three Men and a Child on the Waterfront, Kotor Bay, Yugoslavia, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-305E71. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/three-men-and-a-child-on-the-waterfront-kotor-bay-yugoslavia-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026305E71,
title = {Three Men and a Child on the Waterfront, Kotor Bay, Yugoslavia, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-305E71},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/three-men-and-a-child-on-the-waterfront-kotor-bay-yugoslavia-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Three Men and a Child on the Waterfront, Kotor Bay, Yugoslavia, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-305E71 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/three-men-and-a-child-on-the-waterfront-kotor-bay-yugoslavia-1950s ER -
From the community
Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.
Sign in to add an identification, correction, or comment.
No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.