Untitled (business conference, men and women in suits) c. 1940

Curator: This photograph from Harris & Ewing, currently held at the Harvard Art Museums, captures a business conference. The date is unknown, and it's a gelatin silver print measuring about 8 by 10 inches. It’s a fascinating, if somewhat spectral, image. Editor: My immediate impression is one of conformity. The rows of men in suits create a visual rhythm, almost like a chorus line, but the inversion of tones gives it an eerie, almost unsettling feeling. Curator: The suits do create a powerful symbol of uniformity, a visual shorthand for power and status within a very specific social structure. The photograph speaks to the rituals of corporate life, echoing themes of ambition and hierarchy. Editor: And yet, the presence of women sprinkled through the room, though still a minority, hints at a shift, a breaking of that very uniformity. The photographer is capturing a moment of social change, however subtly. Curator: The lack of a definitive date adds to its universality; it could be almost any business conference from a certain era. It prompts us to consider how much – or how little – has changed. Editor: It leaves me pondering the weight of tradition and the ongoing struggle for equality in these very spaces, and how photography freezes these moments for us to analyze.