Marshall Crossman: Class Action

Back in the 1960s, before cameras were disposable or came embedded in cellphones, before pictures were taken casually and exchanged indiscriminately, posing for the high school yearbook was a rite of passage, an appeal to posterity, viewed by a stranger at a distance of several decades, these black and white photographs are striking for their apparent uniformity: through style of dress and lighting, subject and photographer seemingly conspire to make the entire class fit unobtrusively in a grid, as if everyone were seeking to be remembered unmemorably, as a face in a crowd.