Untitled (chef's hands putting eggs into ground beef) c. 1960

Editor: This photograph, "Untitled (chef's hands putting eggs into ground beef)" by Jack Gould, shows exactly what the title describes. The hands, the bowls, even the tablecloth... everything feels very staged. What's your take on this, looking at it through a materialist lens? Curator: It's fascinating to consider this image as a record of labor. The raw materials – the ground beef, the eggs – are presented not as ingredients, but as commodities undergoing a process. What does the act of staging and photographing this process tell us about the consumption and presentation of food? Editor: I guess I never thought about food photography as a form of labor. Curator: Exactly! It's not just about the end product, but the social and economic processes that shape our understanding and relationship with food. This changes my appreciation of the piece.