Woman in South Bend, Indiana
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There’s nothing wrong with this photo, and yet there’s something about it that feels, I don’t know, unpolished? I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s a standard piece of furniture, and her clothing looks ordinary. Is it the way her face looks in the lighting? Is it something about the pose? It is the vagueness of the backdrop, and the way she almost blends into it, like she’s about to be enveloped in mist? I have to say, I feel the rawness of this image lets us see her more clearly than a photo with more studio finesse, and I like that. The photographer of this CDV, by the way, is Emery E. Pool, of South Bend, Indiana.
Pics of Then 
It’s odd how the backdrop is completely out of focus. It isn’t a problem, but you have to wonder if that was Mr. Pool’s intention.
Yes, not just that it seems out of focus, but that it seems off-center or something. It seems the backdrop’s interesting features are out of frame. Between that and the lighting, I wonder if this isn’t Mr. Pool’s normal set-up, if he’s maybe not in his regular studio. (Or, of course, maybe this is as good as it gets with him, and South Bend didn’t many better choices.)