Woman and girl with a small basket of flowers

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At first glance, this little carte de visite isn’t especially remarkable. But something about it keeps me coming back to it as one I like. It’s a simple composition, but effective, because even though it’s obviously a painted studio backdrop, it’s a plausible setting, and my mind forgets for a moment that they aren’t actually outdoors. And while it might just be a trick of the lighting on their faces, I like the way both of them, particularly the older woman, appear to be faintly smiling. I don’t know who these two are. Mother and daughter, maybe? The whole back of this photo is covered by the remnants of a greenish paper from whatever it had been glued to, so any identification, if there ever was any, of either the photographer or the sitters, is obscured.