Much of this photograph remains shrouded in mystery. As viewers, we know little about the circumstances surrounding the image or whether Diane Arbus knew the subjects pictured. The body language of this couple offers insights. Their physical closeness shows a level of comfort, but their diverging gazes suggest a tension. Though Arbus reveals this singular instant, we might imagine the entire lives of her subjects. The mystery of the photograph allows us, as viewers, to craft our own stories and contexts, granting it power beyond the frozen frame.
Student Interview: Maria Staack ‘22
Maria Staack, Skidmore College Class of 2022, shares her experience working at the Tang Teaching Museum as the 2020–21 Meg Reitman Jacobs ‘63 Endowed Intern.
My name is Maria Staack, class of ‘22. I’m an art history major with minors in media and film studies and American studies. I was the Meg Reitman Jacobs intern for 2020 to 2021. For my capstone project, I created the exhibition Un-Representation.
I really felt inspired by different conversations that I was having in the summer and fall of 2020, especially surrounding the Black Lives Matter protests. We were all sort of experiencing these really negative emotions and traumatic feelings being brought up by the protests.
For that, I wanted to create a space of meditation for black students, faculty, and staff in the Skidmore community. It’s really based in abstraction by black artists, which I thought would be a great medium to create that meditative environment. And I also created meditation programming that would go along with the exhibition throughout the fall semester. I’ve been leading meditation sessions for black students, faculty, and staff.
In the show, we commissioned Tobi Ewing, who graduated from Skidmore in 2015, to create four audio recordings.
And three of them are guided meditations that go with each work in the show. And then there’s a fourth one, which is a soundscape. And she created the vocals, the audio, and the soundscapes for each track. I think people often expect representation to be very literal. I thought that excluded a lot of different ways people express themselves, especially when it comes to black artists.
The Tang is kind of the main aspect of my life at Skidmore. And I come here pretty much every day. I have made so many friends here and had a lot of really great experiences with my show and then also with all the events that I’ve been a part of and gone to.
I think the Tang has been a super important, if not the most important, experience I’ve had at Skidmore.
Maria’s Tang Collective Catalog Entry
 and [*Nicole Cherubini: Shaking the Trees*](/exhibitions/271-nicole-cherubini-shaking-the-trees). Photograph by Cindy Schultz.](https://d1e2ukuji7yni.cloudfront.net/api/file/oLQzbAowS4yjj0SYZCSJ/convert?h=1240&w=2440&compress=true&fit=max)
Maria participates in a special event for Skidmore students called Love is Profoundly Political: Screen Printing at the Tang on October 2, 2020. The designs are based on the exhibitions Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond and Nicole Cherubini: Shaking the Trees. Photograph by Cindy Schultz.