Images of groups seem to occupy a small subset within the history of photography. And if you only deal with American photographs made before 1950, you still get to look at a pretty wacky assortment. Posses, clubs, teams, graduations, parades, rallies, clans, fraternities, assemblies, ceremonies, choruses, and mobs are all here. Beyond the record making or documentary nature of these images, the aesthetic challenges to making something artful must be daunting. Who are these people and what brought them together? These are bizarre, enigmatic visual matrices of information that we can attempt to decode many ways. I like when the blacks and whites play against each other in some sort of unique pattern, literally like a musical staff with notes. Think of these as visual arpeggios. This is jazz. This is not a definitive collection of photographs. These are fun and odd, and they resonate with me. These photographs find me, and I like having them and here, sharing them. That is the pleasure of collecting.

W.M. Hunt