Untitled (aerial view of very large crowd of people) 1946

Editor: This photograph by Jack Gould, "Untitled (aerial view of very large crowd of people)," is a striking image. I’m immediately struck by the sheer number of individuals, and their uniformity with the hats. What symbols do you see here? Curator: The hats, certainly. Think about what a hat meant in those days. It was a symbol of belonging, conformity even. It suggests a shared identity, a collective consciousness. What kind of cultural memories does it evoke for you? Editor: Perhaps a sense of community but also a loss of individuality. The crowd becomes almost a single entity. Curator: Precisely! The image teeters between those two concepts. This tension—unity versus anonymity—reflects a broader cultural narrative about mass society. It almost transforms into one singular symbol. Editor: That’s a fascinating perspective; I never thought of a crowd as a single symbol. Curator: It's amazing how seemingly simple images can hold such complex cultural weight.