Untitled (two girls sitting with two dogs on ledge in yard) c. 1940

This photograph by Paul Gittings captures two girls and their dogs perched on a ledge, somewhere in the yard. I imagine Gittings, squinting through the lens, trying to capture the ephemeral quality of childhood. Look at the way the light spills across the scene, almost obscuring the figures, blurring the edges of the world. You can almost feel the sun on your skin, hear the faint buzz of insects in the background. What were those girls thinking? Were they dreaming of adventures, or simply enjoying the quiet companionship of their canine friends? That grainy texture, the way the light dances with shadow. It reminds you of the way Gerhard Richter would sometimes use out-of-focus photographs as source material for his paintings, blurring the distinction between representation and abstraction. Maybe Gittings, with his camera, was also searching for that elusive space between seeing and feeling, capturing not just an image, but an emotion.