Untitled (portrait of girl in lacy dress embracing cat) c. 1955

This image, Untitled (portrait of girl in lacy dress embracing cat) by Paul Gittings, is a photograph, so the marks it makes are made with light. The photographic negative gives this image an unnerving, almost ghostly quality. The girl's eyes seem to glow with an internal light, and the lace of her dress is transformed into an intricate, almost alien pattern. It's interesting to think about the texture, which, as a photograph, is naturally flat. But within that flatness, Gittings captures the texture of the lace, the fur of the cat. The way the light falls across the dress and the cat creates a play of light and shadow, adding depth and dimension to the image. The formal attire of both girl and cat is funny and endearing, it reminds me of the work of Reneke Dijkstra, using portraiture to capture something both intimate and absurd.