Untitled (boxcars) c. 1970

Curator: Michael Mathers' black and white photograph, “Untitled (boxcars),” now at the Harvard Art Museums, presents a stark image of industrial transit. It's mounted on a 25.4 x 20.3 cm frame. Editor: It evokes a feeling of quiet desolation—the lack of people amplifies a sense of abandonment or perhaps transition. Curator: The composition emphasizes the materiality of the boxcars, their worn surfaces hinting at the labor and resources embedded within the transportation system. The dark and light tones play with texture. Editor: Absolutely, I see these trains as symbols of mobility and historical displacement. The boxcars, potentially carrying marginalized communities, become metaphors for socioeconomic inequalities and systemic injustices. Curator: Thinking about its production, the photograph’s material existence also mirrors industrial processes of the time, the silver gelatin reflecting a specific era of photographic craft. Editor: Indeed. Mathers' work compels us to consider how infrastructure shapes human experience and embodies power dynamics. It’s a sobering piece. Curator: A fitting reflection on the unseen networks shaping our lives.