Untitled (Baby)

“I work a lot in a territory which I feel is not invisible, but on the edge of perception,” Adam Fuss has said. This absolutely arresting yet fundamentally cryptic picture bears that out, leaving the viewer with a sense of something primordial but just beyond the reach of understanding. The elements of the composition are simple, just light, water, photographic paper and a baby. Collector W.M. Hunt, who owned this print before donating it to the museum’s collection wrote about it, saying “This sunburst of yellow explodes like some primal force: urgent, imploring, full of promise.”