Untitled (portrait of girl dressed as cowgirl with gun, holster and boots) 1954

This is a small photographic print by Paul Gittings, currently held in the Harvard Art Museums, presenting an inverted image of a girl dressed as a cowgirl. The stark contrast of the negative creates a visually arresting image. The composition centers on the young girl, whose confident pose and attire suggest a fascination with the symbols of the American West. Gittings captures a child embodying the cowgirl archetype, complete with a toy gun, holster, and boots, against what appears to be a cloudy sky. The image's power lies in its destabilization of fixed categories – childhood innocence versus the implied violence of the Wild West. This contrast invites a semiotic reading, with the cowgirl costume acting as a signifier of broader cultural narratives around gender, power, and performance. Ultimately, it is the photographic inversion itself that underscores the picture's conceptual weight. The photograph functions not just as a portrait but as a complex engagement with themes of identity, representation, and the cultural narratives we inherit and perform.