Untitled (several adults sitting in living room watching television) 1948

Editor: Here we have Jack Gould's "Untitled (several adults sitting in living room watching television)." It's a modest-sized photograph. The figures and furnishings, however, seem strangely luminous. What story do you think the materials tell? Curator: The photographic negative itself tells a story of labor and technology. Gould's choice of medium and its development process reveal the social context of image-making. This wasn't a casual snapshot. Editor: How so? Curator: Consider the deliberate composition and the staged nature of the scene. It speaks to the cultural fascination, and also consumption, of television in domestic spaces. Editor: That's interesting. I hadn't thought about it that way. It makes you consider the impact of technology on our lives.