Street photography is a means of catching moments in time that express human honesty.

Dressup Day | Flickr Explore 2017-02-19

Here we view four people who have exited from The Magik Theatre, a professional children’s theatre in San Antonio, Texas.

Grandmother or auntie is lagging behind a mother with her two young daughters. In the center of the frame is our main subject: the eldest of the girls who is wearing a pink dress. The little lady was watching other children running around the nearby play yard. Her body language and expression contained envy.

Beyond her gesture, her outfit speaks to me of compromise (dressing up for a special occasion) and self-assertion (polka-dot leggings with sport socks instead of formal tights).

In general, attending theatre entertainment is an activity reserved for the privileged. It follows that one dresses according to the formal circumstances and time of day. Mothers are the arbiters of appropriate dress for their children as long as humanly possible. There comes a day, however, when a child begins to assert independence and select his or her clothing for special events.  It is at those times that parents have to pick their battles.