Toddler by Backyard Fence, Suburban USA, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Toddler by Backyard Fence, Suburban USA, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Toddler by Backyard Fence, Suburban USA, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-FC60BC

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He has the stance of a man who has just been told something he doesn't believe. One hand braced against the new-lumber fence, chin set, expression somewhere between skeptical and affronted — this child is approximately two years old and is already done with the proceedings.

The fence itself is the real document here. In the postwar American suburb, the backyard privacy fence went up the same year as the carport and the washing machine, a declaration that a man had arrived at the station in life where his lawn was his own business. The dark-stained horizontal boards stretch the full length of the yard, solid and freshly built, the kind of project a father finished on a Saturday and photographed on Sunday.

Somebody crouched down with a camera expecting the smile that pediatricians and film developers both assumed was standard output for children this age. He did not provide it.

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