Untitled (boy wearing cowboy costume, with toy gun) c. 1950

Editor: This photograph by Lucian and Mary Brown, titled "Untitled (boy wearing cowboy costume, with toy gun)," presents a small boy in full western regalia. The image seems inverted, ghostly. What story do you think it tells? Curator: It's more of a feeling than a story, isn't it? A memory, perhaps, faded and reversed. The toy gun… cowboys… it's childhood imagination filtered through the lens of time. Makes you wonder what games he was playing, and who he imagined himself to be. Do you see any darkness here, or just play? Editor: I see the play, definitely, but the inversion does give it an unsettling edge. I hadn't thought about it as memory before, but that really resonates. Curator: Exactly! Art often hides in plain sight, doesn't it? It’s these quiet, unexpected moments that linger.