Untitled (portrait of little boy) c. 1950

Editor: This is "Untitled (portrait of little boy)" by Lucian and Mary Brown, a small black and white photograph at the Harvard Art Museums. The reversal of light and dark makes the boy seem ghostly, almost like an x-ray. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: The high contrast and its presentation as a negative invite us to consider the social context of photography at the time. Was this a conscious choice to disrupt traditional portraiture, or a technical artifact? Editor: That's interesting! I hadn't thought about the social implications of the negative itself. Curator: It makes you wonder about the role of photography in shaping perceptions of identity, doesn't it? We see the world through the lens, but whose lens is it? Editor: I guess it’s not just a simple portrait, it's a statement about representation. Curator: Exactly. Art always exists in a cultural and historical web.