Untitled (woman with young son and daughter seated on lawn, all in white) after 1940

This photograph by Paul Gittings captures a mother and her children, all clad in white, seated serenely on a lawn. The color white, historically, is a profound symbol of purity, innocence, and a sort of spiritual cleanliness. This image evokes the timeless motif of the Madonna and Child, where the mother, draped in immaculate white, embodies a divine purity. Consider the many Renaissance paintings where the Virgin Mary is robed in white, signifying her untouched nature and moral virtue. Yet, white is not static. It also appears in funerary contexts in other cultures, signifying mourning. In Gittings's photograph, white may serve to idealize the figures and their domestic setting. The collective memory of white, across time and cultures, taps into our subconscious, evoking powerful feelings of reverence, loss, and perhaps even a desire for an idyllic past. This image then becomes a complex interplay of emotions, engaging viewers on a deep, subconscious level. The symbolism of white resurfaces here, filtered through the lens of modern domesticity, yet retaining its fundamental emotive power.