Phrenology: Step In

Urbanologist Max Grinnell tipped me off to a fantastic new photography exhibition at Atlanta's High Museum. The U.S. Rural Electrification Administration and the U.S. Housing Authority commissioned Danish-born photographer Peter Sekaer (1901-1950) to document rural locales and workers during the Great Depression. 87 of his silver-gelatin prints, including the one reproduced above, are on display in the High's "Signs of Life: The Photographs of Peter Sekaer" through 9 January 2011.

The New Orleans phrenologist's sign boasts that she "reads your head like an open book" and "speks servel langues."

Image above: Peter Sekaer, Phrenologist's Office Window, New Orleans, 1936. © Peter Sekaer Estate