Untitled (Bogota) 1978

Curator: This is Bill Dane’s “Untitled (Bogota),” a gelatin silver print now held at the Harvard Art Museums. It's a bustling scene, what catches your eye? Editor: The stark contrast immediately draws me in. It feels raw, almost like a document. All those people...what are they doing there? Curator: Perhaps a political demonstration? Those uniforms and helmets certainly evoke a sense of authority, and potential conflict. The eye is drawn to those details of the uniforms, echoed through time. Editor: It's about the layering of events and how they're recorded. This gelatin silver process creates such a tactile object; there's a history embedded in the very paper. The socio-political dimension of photography can't be ignored. Curator: Agreed, the act of capturing that moment, of freezing the tension...it tells a powerful story about this place, Bogota, even without specific details. Editor: It gives me a lot to think about, how materials, labor, and social action intersect. Curator: For me, it speaks of how symbols persist in our collective memory.