Untitled (portrait of girl with ringlets in dress, standing, holding carnation) c. 1955

Paul Gittings made this photographic negative portrait of a girl holding a carnation; its date is unknown. The tonality of this negative gives the image a haunting quality, and makes me think about how an artist’s decisions can totally transform our sense of a familiar subject. The girl looks straight at us, holding a flower. There’s a certain innocence but also a formality to the pose. The negative makes her skin seem luminous, almost otherworldly. I keep thinking about the way the light and dark are reversed and how this simple trick of representation changes everything. The flower she holds, normally a symbol of beauty and life, becomes almost ghostly. This inversion is a powerful reminder that art isn’t just about capturing reality, but about offering us a different lens through which to see it. Like the work of Diane Arbus, Gittings' photograph makes you question what is normal and what is strange, and the beauty that can be found in both.