Untitled (two girls playing dress-up, one trying on a hat) c. 1950

Curator: This intriguing silver gelatin print, attributed to Jack Gould, captures two girls playing dress-up. The print itself is quite small, only about two and a quarter inches square. What's your initial take on it? Editor: Well, the mood is immediately evocative! It feels like a memory half-forgotten, doesn't it? The inversion gives everything a ghostly, almost dreamlike quality. Curator: Indeed. The image speaks to the performative nature of childhood, the construction of identity through costume. The hat, in particular, is a powerful symbol of transformation. Editor: Absolutely. And that's so interesting in relation to gender too. The hat, the frilly dress… It's like they're enacting a kind of old-fashioned femininity. Curator: Precisely. Though a darker reading is possible, the image also suggests the inevitable performance of the self, and the burdens of expectation it carries. Editor: It makes me consider my own relationship to dress-up, to ritual. It also reminds me of those early days when reality and fantasy were blurred. Quite enchanting, really.