Untitled (chimps playing baseball on a stage) c. 1950

Editor: This is Jack Gould’s "Untitled (chimps playing baseball on a stage)." It's small, a photograph really, but the staging is so strange. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a commentary on labor and performance. The image itself, a photographic negative, is a mass-produced item. The staged scene mimics entertainment, but the crude backdrop and figures point to the exploitation inherent in spectacle. The materiality of the photograph allows for wide consumption of this critique. Editor: So, it's about the means of production and how that impacts the message? Curator: Precisely! Gould uses the accessibility of photography to democratize the critique, bringing attention to the social conditions of both the performers and the audience. Editor: That reframes the image entirely. I was so focused on the oddity of the scene! Curator: Exactly. Thinking about the materials and their social context unlocks a deeper understanding.