Untitled (portrait of child sucking thumb, with dolls) c. 1955

This photographic portrait of a child with dolls, made by Paul Gittings, it's a super strange image, it's like looking into some other world. There's this push and pull between reality and artifice. The thumb-sucking kid looks off to the side and this gesture reads as an unconscious act, like she is comforted by the action, and the dolls, with their stiff forms and vacant stares, they seem to mimic life. It reminds me of how Diane Arbus played with portraiture. I can imagine Gittings setting up the shot, arranging the dolls just so, maybe even coaxing the child into that pose. What was he trying to capture? Was it innocence, or something more unsettling? Whatever it was, I think it's up to us to decide.