Untitled (visitors at museum in sculpture gallery) c. 1950

Curator: John Deusing’s small photograph captures visitors in a sculpture gallery at the Harvard Art Museums. It's all in stark black and white. My first thought? An eerie dream. Editor: Yes, the high contrast renders the figures almost ghostly. Given the arrangement, I wonder about the act of observing these sculptures, and how it mirrors the societal gaze. Who gets to be immortalized in art? Curator: It makes me consider our own transient existence against the perceived permanence of art. The visitors, they are just passing through. Editor: Absolutely. The architecture itself, designed to elevate culture, inadvertently highlights the power dynamics at play—who is invited into these spaces, and whose stories are told? Curator: Almost feels like they're becoming sculptures themselves in this temple of art. Editor: Exactly! It's a fascinating intersection of bodies, space, and representation. Food for thought. Curator: A photograph about the power of seeing, I think, and being seen.