Untitled (three boys posing on spiral staircase) 1965

Curator: This arresting gelatin silver print, about 5 by 4 inches, is an untitled photograph by Lucian and Mary Brown, housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. What strikes you first about it? Editor: The playful unease, definitely. It's an inverted world—the boys are glowing, and the dark sky looms like a threat. Childhood frozen in a moment of suburban gothic. Curator: The process itself is interesting; gelatin silver prints were a common means of photographic reproduction, allowing for relatively easy mass production and dissemination of images. Consider how different this is from contemporary digital photography. Editor: Yes, it feels distant, almost ghostly because of that. It's as if the labor of printing enhances the subject. I wonder what the boys thought about posing? Did they see it as work, or art? Curator: Or neither. This photograph makes me think about the social context of mid-century American childhood. Editor: A haunted, but beautiful memory. Curator: Indeed.