Untitled (bust length portrait of woman in hat and fur lined coat) after 1940

Paul Gittings created this gelatin silver print of a woman in a hat and fur-lined coat. Immediately, the contrast seizes your attention: the plush fur against the smooth skin, the dark hat against the soft background. The composition, tightly cropped, focuses on the face, framed by these contrasting textures. Gittings masterfully uses light and shadow to sculpt the woman’s features, drawing our eyes to her gaze. The fur, a dominant element, creates a sense of luxuriousness. Here, we can consider Roland Barthes' ideas on semiotics. The hat and fur operate as signifiers of status, creating meaning through cultural codes that were already in place at the time the photograph was taken. Ultimately, Gittings challenges the viewer to decode the portrait. It's a moment frozen in time, charged with cultural significance, which is constantly open to reinterpretation.