Untitled (portrait of woman seated in flower hat holding bouquet) c. 1940

Here's a photographic portrait by Paul Gittings, somewhere in the past, immortalizing a woman with flowers. It's like a photograph but in reverse, a negative that turns what we expect upside down. Look at the way the light almost seems to eat away at the woman’s form, especially in her smile, like the photo is revealing the bones underneath. The bouquet she’s holding is like a ghostly offering, and the hat, perched on her head like a crown, adds to this sense of her presence being both grand and fragile. Gittings seems to be engaging in a kind of dialogue with photography itself, asking what it means to capture an image, to preserve a moment, or to see something from an opposite perspective. Think about someone like Lisette Model, she loved playing with light and shadow. Both artists make you wonder if there’s more to seeing than just looking.