The Public Sale

This is an odd shot (click the picture for a larger image). The child seems to be staring back at the viewer, as though the photo frame itself was a window. Windows work two ways, you can look out or in. Photos are generally one way, but this one has a subject staring back at the viewer.
The story is odd too. I worked on the Queen Anne Record Observer, Centreville, Md. This was also the location of the Russian Embassy’s vacation house/villa/dacha. The “public sale” pictured above was the sale of some land that had been owned by the Russian Embassy.
This photograph was taken many years ago, when Cold War sentiments were still prevalent. We’d see Russians in Centreville on odd occasions, usually overdressed for the weather. But they generally kept to themselves.
When I was researching this, I came across an article on the estate. Nice place; http://www.washingtonlife.com/issues/summer-2007/EMBASSY-ROW/