Untitled c. 1950s

This untitled photograph by Frances McLaughlin-Gill captures a moody scene using light and shadow, with a tight range of greys. There’s something about the composition that feels very staged, theatrical even. The subject stands poised in the doorway, but then there’s the second face, almost like a painting, watching from that small window. The contrast between the dark interior and the bright doorway really emphasizes the texture of the wooden panels, and the way the light falls across the model’s face and clothes. It almost feels like you could reach out and touch the rough grain of the wood. The way the two figures relate to each other, or don't, reminds me of the paintings of Édouard Vuillard who was interested in these kinds of layered interior spaces and ambiguous figures. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, a game of call and response, where meaning is never fixed but always shifting.