Photograph from 1961: the story of a domestic worker portrayed alongside a family and her life path

Images like this have a value that transcends the aesthetic or the nostalgic. They are documents that allow us to examine what labor and family relationships were like in another era, and how society has changed, though not always enough. Behind each portrait are stories that often went untold because the women depicted had no voice in the public sphere.

Some elements that these photographs invite us to observe:

• The composition:  who appears seated, who standing, who is in the center and who on the margins.
• Clothing:  uniforms mark clear differences in role and position.
• Eyes:  they reveal emotions that the words of the moment could not express.
• The context:  the furniture, the decoration and the details tell about the daily life of the time.

A reflection on memory

The interest in looking at old photographs is not just an exercise in nostalgia. It is also a way of doing symbolic justice to those who were for a long time an invisible part of family history. Remembering that domestic worker from 1961, imagining her journey, and recognizing that her life was as complex and valuable as that of any of the people surrounding her in the portrait, is a way of rewriting how we look at the past.