There’s something wrong with this image.
 
Captured on Halloween night in 1952, this black-and-white photograph shows two children—Sue and Ann, according to the faint pencil inscription on the back—posed in what should be an ordinary Halloween scene. But everything about it feels… off. Their identities are swallowed by stiff, grinning clown masks, the kind molded from cheap mid-century plastic.
 
The smaller child stands at an angle, her gaze fixed on the taller one beside her. But the taller girl—Ann, perhaps—stares directly into the camera, unblinking through the mask’s lifeless eyes. The result is unnervingly intimate, like she knows something you don’t.
 
Printed on Kodak Velox Paper, the photograph bears a development date of Feb 9, 1953—months after the moment it captures. Why does the scene feel staged, as if someone meant for this image to survive, not as a keepsake, but as a record? The grain of the print only adds to its unease, cloaking the girls in a soft shadow that seems to spread the longer you look.
 
Details:
• Original black-and-white Halloween photograph, 1952
• Two children in disturbing clown masks
• Pencil note on back: “Halloween 1952. Sue + Ann”
• Kodak Velox Paper; stamped print date: Feb 9, 1953
• Approx. 3.5" x 5"
• Condition: Excellent