Untitled (six men being sworn-in during official ceremony) c. 1950

Curator: This photograph by Jack Gould captures a moment of civic ritual: an official swearing-in ceremony with six men raising their right hands. Editor: The inverted tones give it an eerie, almost spectral feel. It's hard to ignore the power dynamics inherently at play. Who are these men, and what are they promising? Curator: The print itself, roughly 4x5 inches, would have likely been contact printed from a larger negative, a common practice offering a direct, unmediated image. Consider the labor, the darkroom work, the chemicals… Editor: And yet, the uniformity is striking – the implied power concentrated in a select group, likely excluding many others in their community. Curator: Indeed, the very act of photographing amplifies this power, enshrining it for posterity. It's a fascinating tension between the banality of the event and the weight of its implications. Editor: It makes you wonder whose stories are being told, and whose are being left out of the frame.