Gallery Talk: Hauntology, Death Discs, and the Specter of Postwar America
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How to join: Check in at the Visitor Services desk; space is limited.
Fee: This is a free event.
Accessibility accommodations: If you would like to request accommodations for your visit, please contact Visitor Services at [email protected] or 617-495-9400. For more details about accommodations at the museums, please see the Accessibility page.
Explore photographs through the lens of teen tragedy songs (known as “death discs”), hauntology, and postwar American nostalgia. In her talk, marketing assistant and artist Krystle Brown will pair images by Joseph Janney Steinmetz and Terry Wood with the emotional atmosphere of 1950s and 1960s death discs, such as “Leader of the Pack,” “Teen Angel,” and “Last Kiss,” examining how photography can preserve and haunt cultural fantasies of innocence, romance, suburban adolescence, and loss.
This talk is offered in conjunction with the exhibition The Way We Never Were: The American Professional Photographers Collection, on view from August 29, 2026 to May 9, 2027.
Led by:
Krystle Brown, Marketing Assistant, Harvard Art Museums
Fee: This is a free event.
Accessibility accommodations: If you would like to request accommodations for your visit, please contact Visitor Services at [email protected] or 617-495-9400. For more details about accommodations at the museums, please see the Accessibility page.
Explore photographs through the lens of teen tragedy songs (known as “death discs”), hauntology, and postwar American nostalgia. In her talk, marketing assistant and artist Krystle Brown will pair images by Joseph Janney Steinmetz and Terry Wood with the emotional atmosphere of 1950s and 1960s death discs, such as “Leader of the Pack,” “Teen Angel,” and “Last Kiss,” examining how photography can preserve and haunt cultural fantasies of innocence, romance, suburban adolescence, and loss.
This talk is offered in conjunction with the exhibition The Way We Never Were: The American Professional Photographers Collection, on view from August 29, 2026 to May 9, 2027.
Led by:
Krystle Brown, Marketing Assistant, Harvard Art Museums
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Where is it happening?
Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherHarvard Art Museums
