Untitled (girl sitting in back of full shopping cart) c. 1947

Editor: This photograph by Jack Gould, titled "Untitled (girl sitting in back of full shopping cart)," is quite small, less than 6x6 cm! I’m struck by the contrast of the girl inside the cart and the woman standing nearby. What symbols do you see at play here? Curator: Consider the cart itself: a container, a vehicle, typically used for acquiring goods. Yet here, it holds a person. The laden cart and the girl evoke ideas of dependency, but on what, or whom? Is it family, consumerism, society, or something else? Editor: That's a compelling point. So, the shopping cart becomes a symbol of societal support, or perhaps even constraint? Thanks for expanding my understanding. Curator: Exactly. We project our own cultural baggage onto these images, revealing more about ourselves than the subject sometimes.