Untitled (man in control room) 1962

Curator: This untitled photograph by Jack Gould presents us with a man inside what looks like a control room. It's a gelatin silver print, quite small, only about six centimeters square. Editor: My first thought? Isolation. All those blinking lights, yet the atmosphere feels so sterile and detached. It's like observing a scene from a very dark play. Curator: The man in the control room can be seen as a symbol of human dominance over technology, or perhaps conversely, of being controlled by it. The anonymous figure in the back seems to be an observer. Editor: Or a memory! He's like a ghost in the machine. It’s unnerving how the framing creates a sense of voyeurism, making us complicit in this... this staged drama. Curator: I see a visual representation of control, surveillance, and the potential for technology to mediate human interaction. Editor: I see loneliness in a very small frame. Pretty haunting actually.