Untitled (young man in suit with right hand on back of chair) after 1940

This striking photograph by Paul Gittings captures a young man in a suit, his hand resting on the back of a chair. The suit, a symbol of respectability, speaks to a desire for social acceptance and upward mobility. Observe the interplay of light and shadow casting a profile on the wall. This shadowed doppelganger echoes the ancient motif of the "shadow self," the repressed aspects of our being. One cannot help but recall Plato’s cave and the shadows that represented a distorted version of reality. Across time, we see variations of this symbolic duality—the saint and sinner, the conscious and unconscious. The shadow evokes a powerful emotional reaction, hinting at hidden desires and anxieties. This photographic composition is not just an image, it’s an encounter with the archetypal shadows that haunt the human psyche, reminding us that history is a continuous cycle of rediscovery and reinterpretation.