Untitled (baby and two little ducks) c. 1950

Curator: This is an untitled photograph by Lucian and Mary Brown, part of the Harvard Art Museums collection. It depicts a baby crawling on grass towards two ducks. Editor: It has an unsettling, almost dreamlike quality, maybe it’s the inverted tones that makes it so striking. Curator: Indeed. The negative presentation invites questions about representation and reality. How are childhood and nature perceived through the lens of domesticity and artistic vision? Editor: I’m drawn to the materiality of the photographic process itself: the chemicals, the paper, the darkroom labor, and how it shapes this image. It asks us to consider the hand in creating what feels like an intimate snapshot. Curator: Precisely, by understanding the socio-political implications embedded in seemingly simple scenes, we reveal larger narratives of identity. Editor: It does provoke thought, reminding us that even the simplest image carries traces of its making.