St. Gabriel, Louisiana 15 - 2000

Deborah Luster created this haunting portrait in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, using the 19th-century technique of tintype photography. The whole process is right there on the surface, immediate and raw, like a painting. What gets me is the light. It's this hazy, golden-brown that seems to come from another time. The scratches and imperfections in the plate give it a ghostly quality, and they emphasize the material reality of the image. See how the light catches the woman’s hands? The fingers are long and delicate. I’m drawn to the tattoo on her forearm, a small, faded design that hints at a story. It reminds me of Julia Margaret Cameron's portraits, but with a contemporary edge. Luster's work, like all great art, embraces the beauty of imperfection and reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation.