Untitled (girl at bottom of staircase) c. 1950

Paul Gittings made this gelatin silver print, "Untitled (girl at bottom of staircase)" without a date. Isn’t it funny how a photograph can feel both staged and accidental at the same time? I get the sense that Gittings wanted to capture a specific moment, maybe an attempt to freeze time. But there’s something else at play, like the spontaneity of life crashing the scene. The girl in her floral playsuit and tennis shoes becomes the focal point. I wonder what she was thinking, standing there on the bottom of the staircase? The high-contrast of the image reminds me a little of Diane Arbus's fascination with the everyday and the uncanny. Like Arbus, Gittings frames his subject with a curiosity that invites us to ponder the stories behind the image. It’s like a scene from a play, maybe? Where the girl and the stairs create an enigmatic stage where time seems to be standing still.