Untitled (portrait of two men in suits, seated) c. 1940

Paul Gittings made this untitled portrait of two men in suits, seated, with photography. What strikes me first is the inversion of tone, the play between light and shadow. It's like looking at a photographic negative, a behind-the-scenes peek into the mechanics of image-making. You can almost smell the chemicals, hear the click of the shutter. The surface is smooth, almost clinical, but the image is anything but. The men's faces, eerily illuminated, seem to hover in the darkness. There's a tension, a stillness, that feels almost unsettling. Take a look at the way their suits are rendered. The fabric seems to ripple and flow, almost like liquid light. It's a beautiful effect, and it reminds me of the way Gerhard Richter would later blur the boundaries between painting and photography. This piece embraces uncertainty, inviting us to question what we think we see.