wedlock

The winding down of wedding season is a good time for reflection on the institution and the curators of the Ricco-Maresca Gallery in Manhattan furnish us with a captivating lens to view the changing conventions and trappings of matrimony with a collection of Victorian era cabinet cards that take a slice of late nineteenth century attitudes towards portraiture and keepsakes. These sombre, serious poses (a little haunted but typical for the time when photography was new and reserved for such special occasions and vows weren’t always exchanged out of love but rather for the sake of utility) are contrasted with a progression of wedding cake toppers from that time up to the present that reflect maturing outlooks and rituals that retain meaning in their fungibility.