Untitled (woman seated in armchair with baby in long dress on lap) c. 1940

This undated photograph, by Paul Gittings, captures a woman seated with a baby, but it's the tonal reversal that really grabs me. It's like seeing a familiar scene through an uncanny filter. The image’s darkness really makes you focus on the textures, doesn't it? You can almost feel the weight of the fabric in the baby’s long dress, the soft cushion of the armchair. The light picks out these little details, little dots and dashes, and transforms them. The darks become highlights, and the highlights become shadows. It’s a total trip. Look at the way the light defines the folds of the woman's dress. Each fold becomes a channel, a dark river flowing across the fabric. This photographic negative transforms an ordinary moment into something altogether more mysterious. It reminds me of those early experimental photographs by people like Anna Atkins, the way they used light and chemistry to make visible the unseen world. It’s this dialogue with what photography can be which stays with me.