Hillhouse Avenue n.d.

Curator: This is "Hillhouse Avenue," a photograph by the Peck Brothers. Its precise date remains unknown. Editor: There’s a quiet grandeur to this image, almost like a stage set. The trees lining the avenue create a striking perspective. It's a little somber, too, perhaps because they are bare of leaves? Curator: I'm fascinated by the photographic process here. It is not just about what the Peck Brothers chose to depict but how they utilized the medium itself. The tones are muted, almost sepia-like. The physical prints by the Peck Brothers are quite tactile, emphasizing photography's nature as an object, a commodity even. They were a commercial studio after all. Editor: True, and placing this work within the social context of late 19th-century America, we should remember the unequal access to representation. Who gets to be immortalized in a photograph, and whose stories remain untold? A stately avenue like this probably hints at underlying wealth and power dynamics of that era. Curator: Absolutely, it's about labor too. From the papermaking to the chemical processes of developing the image, these all involve layers of manual work often erased in the final 'artistic' product. Where were the Peck Brothers sourcing materials from? What was their business model? It prompts an intersectional perspective through photographic practices. Editor: These perspectives can open up wider dialogues about place, identity and history – turning an aesthetic experience into a moment of engaged critical reflection. Curator: I find myself thinking about the materiality of that moment - the feel of the camera, the scent of the chemicals - the making-of that led to this final representation we see now. Editor: For me, I am left considering those whose stories are absent – the laborers, the marginalized – wondering what Hillhouse Avenue represented to them, if anything at all.