This vintage photograph appears to be the work of an amateur, and yet it captures the artificiality of professional studio portrait. The little girl with her chihuahua, flowers wrapped in newspaper, and brand new clothes, is set in a shockinglly stark room, as though no one really lived in this place.

It's almost certainly a home portrait with the room's regular furnishings moved out of the way to echo a studio. Even placing the dog atop a table is a borrowing from the professional methods of arranging a tableau.

A patch vaguely visible on the back wall, and the fact that the flowers are unimpressive and wrapped in newsprint, indicates this is the child of a poor family. That she has a backpack suggests this is to be her first day at school, these are her new school clothes, and the flowers are for the teacher.