Margaret French and Monroe Wheeler

Painters Paul Cadmus, Jared French, and Margaret Hoening French formed the photography collective PaJaMa—a moniker composed of the first two letters of each of their first names. The trio spent their summers on beaches along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, photographing scenes of themselves and their friends, who were members of New York’s artistic and LGBTQ communities. In the late 1930s, the PaJaMa artists joined the creative circle of acclaimed author Glenway Wescott and his longtime companion Monroe Wheeler. In this photograph, the branches of a dead tree frame Margaret French’s face while Wheeler, standing behind her and to the right, looks into the distance. The photograph characterizes the group’s improvisational tendencies and use of the natural world around them to produce mysterious scenes.