Untitled (woman in long striped dress seated with two children in armchair by window and table) after 1940

This black and white photograph captures a woman with two children in an interior, and was probably made with a large format camera. Look at how the stripes on the woman’s dress create this rhythm of dark and light, a visual game almost, that the eye follows. There's a formality to the posing, a sense of stillness that is almost dreamlike, which seems to echo the pictorial style of someone like, say, Gerhard Richter. The tonality is quite rich, you can see the way the light falls on the carpet, and the soft grays that render the folds in the curtain behind the family. It's a very painterly photograph, and the composition has a real sense of balance, doesn’t it? Maybe the most compelling thing about this photograph is the way the artist has made a record of this family, while also hinting at the subtle tensions and complexities that exist within it. It’s this kind of quiet power that reminds me of the work of Alice Neel, someone else deeply attuned to the complexities of family life.