Untitled (Woman with hands over face in field) c. 1950s

Here's this photograph of a woman with her hands over her face, snapped by an anonymous photographer, location unknown. It looks like she is standing in a field – and I just want to reach out and take her hands away from her face. Maybe she is crying, or playing a game, perhaps overcome by a sudden epiphany? I wonder if they were thinking about ways to obscure identity or how to convey emotional states through gesture? This composition, with its focus on concealment and the evocation of emotion, makes me think about the broader conversation around portraiture and the representation of the human form. The act of hiding becomes a powerful statement. And in a way, it creates an invitation for us to project our own feelings onto the subject. We see ourselves in her gesture.