One of Bullock’s most popular and enigmatic photographs, Navigation without Numbers conveys a tension between both beauty and disturbance and enlightenment and mystery. The room inhabited by this mother and child appears simultaneously inviting and rugged. Below the window sits a nautical book, the title of which gives the picture its name, describing how to pilot through dark waters. Bullock photographed and printed the scene to conjure a feeling of the dimensional disorientation one might feel on a nighttime sea voyage. The contours of the bed fall into shadow so that the child appears suspended in space. The figures suggest basic dualities in the cycle of life: youth and old age, growth and maturation, connection and isolation. They appear to exist simultaneously in multiple frames of reference, captured in a dream world while physically situated in a humble home.