Untitled (businesspeople at desks in Mercantile Exchange auditorium) c. 1950

Editor: This small, undated photograph by Jack Gould, titled *Untitled (businesspeople at desks in Mercantile Exchange auditorium)*, shows a room full of people at desks. It feels quite sterile. What stands out to you? Curator: I'm struck by the materiality of the image itself. The Kodak film border reminds us that this isn't just a scene, but a manufactured object, a product of the photographic industry and its technologies of capturing and presenting information, potentially reflecting social structures. Editor: That's interesting. I hadn't thought of it that way. Curator: Consider the labor involved: manufacturing the film, taking the photo, developing it. It makes you think about the exchange between the people in the photo and the photographer. Editor: True. It makes me wonder about the relationship between labor, photography, and finance. Curator: Precisely!