Untitled (paramedics loading stretcher into ambulance) c. 1950

Curator: Here we have Jack Gould’s silver gelatin print, *Untitled (paramedics loading stretcher into ambulance)*, housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It’s stark, isn't it? The high contrast makes the scene feel both urgent and detached. Like a memory surfacing in fragments. Curator: Indeed. Gould captures a very specific moment: paramedics carefully transferring someone onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. Given the nature of the subject matter, how do you interpret this choice of imagery? Editor: Well, ambulances often serve as potent symbols of crisis, vulnerability, and the boundary between life and death in our collective consciousness. To see this rendered in such a blunt, almost confrontational style adds to that tension. Curator: I agree. And considering the prevalence of such scenes, particularly within the context of public health and safety, it raises questions about our access to care and how these services are represented in visual culture. Editor: It prompts reflection, doesn't it? On what we choose to remember, and how these symbols persist in our shared visual language.