Untitled (unidentified sitter) c. 1865

Editor: Here we have an untitled photograph by George Kendall Warren, housed at the Harvard Art Museums. The oval shape and sepia tones lend it a timeless, almost ghostly quality. What strikes you about its formal construction? Curator: The stark contrast between the subject and the background creates a visual tension. Note how the limited tonal range and the soft focus draw attention to the sitter’s gaze, inviting a semiotic reading of character through physiognomy. Editor: So, the composition itself is making an argument about the sitter? Curator: Precisely. The artist’s manipulation of light and shadow, within the constraints of the photographic medium, infuses the portrait with symbolic weight, regardless of the sitter’s identity. Have we uncovered something about photographic portraiture? Editor: Definitely. I now see how much the photographer can manipulate our reading of a subject, even without knowing who they are.