Untitled (girl in fancy dress talking to man in suit) c. 1950

Editor: This is an untitled photograph by Jack Gould, showing a girl in a fancy dress speaking to a man in a suit. The image is quite small and somewhat ghostly. What symbols or deeper meanings do you see in this seemingly simple scene? Curator: The girl in her dress and the man in his suit create a binary. What memories are being created, what stories being told? The mirror behind the girl, her own reflection, adds a layer of self-awareness. What is the relationship between how we see ourselves, and how we wish to be seen? Editor: That’s fascinating. I hadn’t considered the performative aspect of it. Curator: It speaks to our collective desire to create meaning through visual signifiers and connect across generations. Editor: I will be thinking about this for a while!