Untitled (portrait of little girl with Mother Goose book) c. 1955

This is a photograph called 'Untitled (portrait of little girl with Mother Goose book)' by Paul Gittings, currently housed at the Harvard Art Museums. What strikes you first is the inverted tonality of the image. The negative exposure renders the girl's skin luminescent, almost otherworldly, against a dark backdrop. This reversal of light and shadow destabilizes our conventional understanding of portraiture, heightening the formal elements. The composition is carefully arranged, the girl is seated, holding a 'Mother Goose' book, its title prominently displayed. The book acts as a signifier, a cultural artifact laden with associations of childhood innocence and the transmission of societal norms through storytelling. Yet, the inverted image challenges this fixed meaning. The artist manipulates the photographic medium to question the relationship between representation and reality. What is real, and what is a mirror image? Ultimately, Gittings's play with the negative space invites us to question the very nature of photography as a tool for capturing truth. It is a study in contrast, revealing how much meaning resides not in the subject itself, but in the way it is presented.