Untitled (woman seated at edge of bassinet looking at baby on lap) c. 1940

Paul Gittings made this untitled photograph of a woman and baby, printed on gelatin silver. It’s like a memory, but inverted. The dark areas, normally shadows, are glowing. The whole scene is suffused with a kind of radiant energy. I think about how a photograph like this is more than a simple representation. It’s a transformation, a manipulation of light and dark. The way the light falls on the woman's face and hair is mesmerizing. It's as if she and the baby are emitting light, rather than reflecting it. Look at her hands. They’re blurred from movement, a subtle detail, but it conveys such tenderness and care. There's something about that gesture that makes me think of Mary Cassatt, but with a twist. It's the same theme, motherhood, but processed through a very different lens, or camera. A lens that embraces the beauty in ambiguity, in the ethereal glow that surrounds these figures.