Untitled (newsboy with bike, scattered papers on ground) c. 1950

Editor: This photograph by Jack Gould, titled "Untitled (newsboy with bike, scattered papers on ground)," depicts a chaotic street scene. The negative really heightens the drama. What strikes you about it? Curator: The scattered papers feel like a visual poem, a flurry of lost voices. The newsboy, mid-gesture, is frozen in time, and I wonder what headline he's shouting, what story he's desperate to share. Editor: It's like a moment of suspended animation. Curator: Exactly! And the Plaza theater in the background, advertising "Always Two Big Feature Attractions", is a reminder of the fleeting nature of news, swallowed up by entertainment. What do you make of that? Editor: It makes you think about what lasts and what doesn't. Curator: Precisely. Makes me want to buy a newspaper, or at least visit an old movie palace.