Claire A. De Soto, St. Gabriel, Louisiana 28 - 1999

Deborah Luster made this photograph, Claire A. De Soto, St. Gabriel, Louisiana, using the tintype process. It’s a world of blacks and golds, a limited palette that feels somehow sepia-toned and antique. The surface is smooth but marked, with scratches that make me think about time and the way images accrue history, like the rings of a tree. The woman’s gaze is direct, but her gloved hands, clasped at her neck, add a layer of formality. It makes me think of the work of Diane Arbus, someone who understood the power of portraiture to reveal something hidden beneath the surface. There’s an interesting tension here between the subject’s vulnerability and the strength of her pose. The image is small, intimate, and invites close looking, but doesn’t give up all its secrets easily. In that way, the image feels less like a record and more like a suggestion, a proposition.