I'm just noticing their clothes. They look like Sunday best. And I can't help feeling the temperature where I am at the moment, and thinking how incredibly hot those clothes must be."

"It could be a winter's day."

"Yes, I think you're right. They look really heavily dressed, you can almost sense the weight of the material. Beautiful clothes but they do look quite unwieldy. Might be hard work wearing that dress."

"I get the impression they’re brother and sister. I think just because of the way they look. I hadn't quite thought that before but looking at the faces especially around the eyebrows and the bridge of the nose."

"Yes, there's a certain tension, you know, maybe this isn't something they often do, have a photo taken. You had to stand still for a while in those days. And yet, in another sense, they look quite at home in their own selves."

"The body language is interesting, there's kind of an intimacy, both facing each other in an open way. I thought it was interesting that she was stopping and he was sitting. I also thought perhaps they were brother and sister."

"It struck me, they seem to be a newly married couple. Why is she standing quite so close to him? Close enough to be familiar, but not close enough to suggest they've been together a long time. I get the feeling there's something that suggests a certain lack of familiarity."

Conversation from Platt Hall Keep Connected Consultation, June 2020

Cabinet photograph, inscribed on back, 'Mr & Mrs Babow of / Rusholme, while engaged. / Married in 1895.'