Wedding Photograph
Gibson, Sykes and Fowler Studio
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, June 7, 1925
Photograph
Gift on behalf of their children, Sidney Kaplan, Evelyn Gold, Gerson Kaplan and Miriam Clarke, commemorates Dora Bariff’s wedding to Hayman B. Kaplan
94.19
The portrait of Dora Bariff on her wedding day enables a glimpse into a moment instilled with religious and social rituals, hope, and cultural critique. The Gibson, Sykes, and Fowler studio, a prominent Chicago photography studio that operated during the early twentieth century, took this particular photograph. The studio played a key part in the history of Chicago’s first photographic union and it regularly contributed to local newspapers while also documenting some of the most prominent people of the Midwest.
The fact that Dora Bariff chose such a prestigious studio for her wedding day not only signifies her social stature and the importance she placed on commemorating this special day, but it also signals to why we would find such a seemingly standard wedding portrait within a cultural institution. In many ways, the brand name of this studio lends more significance to the photograph than the portrait itself, enabling this object to communicate the history of the individual person, her family, and their relationship to Chicago, while also referring to its own unique presence.
Despite the personal value this photograph held for Dora, it raises questions about how cultural objects work within a museum setting. Why preserve this particular wedding portrait? How does the prominence of the studio and the subject within the portrait interact to affect the longevity of the photograph within social memory? What information is transmitted through its care and presentation? How does this object highlight the slippery nature of identity and the inscribed value of an object?
