This photograph feels to me as if there are a million stories embedded in it, with all sorts of drama embedded those! Printed I believe from a glass plate negative, I find it supremely moody, with this wonderful contrast between the ultra sharp detail on the right side of the image and the blur of the left, which makes it feel as if the younger woman is in a world all her own, longing, perhaps, to be leave her companion behind and venture into a much wilder sort of life! I could look at this one all day.
The dealer I purchased this from noted that these two women are on an "Audubon walk"--popularized by early conservationists (many of them women) in Audubon Magazine, who led the crusade for observing, and protecting, birds in nature rather than poaching them for their plumage (particularly for women's hats.)
3 15/16" x 5" and in good condition, antique paper print from a glass plate negative, I believe, late 19th/very early 20th c.
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