Untitled (man cutting hair of doll in toy fire truck) 1956

Editor: This intriguing, small, undated photograph by Jack Gould, held at the Harvard Art Museums, depicts a doll getting a haircut in a toy fire truck. The image, in negative, feels both intimate and unsettling. What do you make of this unusual scene? Curator: It's wonderfully peculiar, isn’t it? It suggests a private world, a child perhaps experimenting with control, playing with identity and the familiar rituals of adulthood, with that stark contrast and odd arrangement. Doesn’t it make you wonder what other secrets this picture holds? Editor: It really does. Thank you. Curator: My pleasure. I’m still puzzling over the fire truck.