Untitled (three children in library) c. 1950

Curator: This photograph, "Untitled (three children in library)" by John Howell, captures a candid moment, printed at approximately 10 by 13 centimeters. Editor: There's an eerie stillness here. Almost as if the children are caught mid-thought, bathed in a strange light. Gives me the shivers, in a good way. Curator: Note the composition: three children positioned in relation to objects of knowledge and leisure—a sofa, a bookcase filled with what appears to be books and film reels, and a window. Editor: Those stacks! A tower of stories, right there. The kids seem dwarfed, yet somehow connected to it all. Curator: I’m drawn to the materiality of the photographic process itself—the labor, the emulsion on the film, the darkroom work, and the final print. It becomes a document of middle-class domestic life. Editor: It makes you wonder what stories those books and those reels hold. And what stories these children will write with their lives. The photo feels like a promise, tinged with melancholy. Curator: Precisely. A testament to the interplay between image, labor, and memory. Editor: Right. A ghost story about childhood, captured in silver.