Untitled (man and woman playing with paddle ball) c. 1950

Curator: This is an untitled gelatin silver print by Jack Gould, depicting a man and woman with a paddle ball. It's part of the Harvard Art Museums collection. Editor: My initial impression is a sense of strained elegance. The woman smoking, the man stiffly holding the paddle ball... it's almost unsettling. Curator: Yes, and consider the labor embedded here. The photographic process itself, the chemical reactions, the darkroom practices… it's all a testament to a specific moment in the history of image-making. The availability of materials like gelatin silver dictated the aesthetic possibilities. Editor: The image itself, I find, speaks to a very particular kind of leisure. The paddle ball, the cigarette—symbols of a certain social class and their rituals. It's a tableau of mid-century aspiration, wouldn't you say? Curator: Perhaps. But for me, it's fascinating how the artist chose to capture this scene. The negative gives it an eerie feel. What statement does it attempt to make? Editor: An interesting point. Maybe they were trying to invert those symbols, challenging the viewer's expectations of wealth. Food for thought.