Untitled (portrait of little girl in flowered cape, standing on haystack and under parasol) c. 1955

This photographic print of a young girl in a flowered cape, standing on a haystack with a parasol, was made by Paul Gittings. You know, when you look at this image, doesn’t it make you wonder about childhood and the staged scenes that populate it? This negative image is like a shadow of a photograph that presents itself as a scene in a theatre, where the haystack becomes a stage and the young girl with her doll becomes a player. Her confident pose, holding the parasol with such seriousness, makes me think about playing dress-up, and how fascinating it is to get to try on all these personas when you're little, as if childhood itself is a long rehearsal. Like a photograph, it offers us the ability to look at the world from a particular perspective and preserves a moment in time. It gives the everyday a sort of grander narrative, where it’s not just a portrait of a girl, but maybe also a glimpse into her imagination. What do you think?