Untitled (two children in overalls standing outside) 1962

Curator: This intriguing photographic negative, a piece of film measuring about 5 by 4 inches, is listed as Untitled and was created by Lucian and Mary Brown. Editor: The image has a strange, unsettling beauty. The inverted tones give the scene a dreamlike, almost ghostly quality. There’s a vulnerability in those children's faces that’s really striking. Curator: Given what we see, the symbolism is fascinating; the children holding hands suggest innocence, protection, and perhaps a journey undertaken together. The negative image casts a different light, doesn't it? Editor: Exactly! Reclaiming the lost or unseen. Black children in this positionality, with the inversion of colors, evokes questions of representation, the gaze, and how photographic technology itself has been historically implicated in racial narratives. Curator: Indeed, thinking about what is visible and what is obscured… the image becomes a powerful meditation on memory and identity. Editor: Absolutely, this photograph is a reminder of the stories that reside within the photographic frame.