A Gitana - Granada 1914

James Craig Annan made this image, A Gitana - Granada, using a photogravure, which is a process that is a little like etching and a little like photography. You can really see that in the granular texture. It's monochrome, but not really. It's all about the tonality, how the light just catches the folds in her shawl and the curve of that basket. Notice how the deepest darks are reserved for the centre of the image, almost creating a vanishing point in the dark folds of her dress. I love the texture of the surface. It feels like you could reach out and touch the rough weave of her skirt, the worn wall behind her. It reminds me a little of some of the early modernist photography, like Stieglitz, where the process is so much a part of the finished artwork. You feel the hand in it, even though it's a photograph, and it’s an ongoing conversation.