Untitled (baby leaning back on quilt) c. 1940

This is a black and white photograph by Paul Gittings, "Untitled (baby leaning back on quilt)." The negative space renders the image in ghostly blacks and whites, giving this image a strange intimacy. See how the radiating pattern of the quilt behind the child creates a kind of halo, almost like a sacred icon. It makes me think about how all photographs are documents of presence but also, in another sense, evidence of something gone. I love how the photograph really makes you think about the nature of the surface. The baby, the quilt, even the photographic paper itself, all flattened into one continuous plane. The details in the quilt – each ridge and furrow of fabric – look so tactile, you can almost feel them. It’s as if the artist is asking us to consider not just what we see, but how we see. This reminds me of work by Lisette Model, in the way it combines a close attention to the figure with a kind of off-kilter perspective. Ultimately, it’s a reminder that art is never just about capturing a moment, but about how we interpret and reimagine the world around us.