Untitled (girl riding on carousel horse) c. 1950

Editor: This is Jack Gould’s "Untitled (girl riding on carousel horse)" - a small, black and white photograph from the Harvard Art Museums. It’s a negative, so the image is inverted. What stands out to me is the visible process, the film itself, which is quite raw. What do you make of it? Curator: Considering the materiality, the photographic negative itself becomes a document of the moment, revealing not just the image, but also the labor and the chemical processes involved. How does the inverted image alter our perception of childhood joy and the manufactured spectacle of the carousel? Editor: That’s a great point. I hadn’t considered the "manufactured spectacle" aspect. Seeing the process does demystify it a bit. Curator: Exactly. It prompts us to think about the means of production behind even seemingly innocent forms of entertainment. Editor: It's fascinating how focusing on the material transforms our understanding.