Untitled (portrait of a woman in large hat) c. 1930s

This striking photograph by Paul Gittings at the Harvard Art Museums presents a woman in a large hat, rendered with a compelling sense of light and shadow. The visual field is dominated by stark tonal contrasts, with the woman's profile sharply defined against a dark backdrop. What we might initially perceive as flaws—the scattered dots across the image—become integral to its texture, challenging our expectations of photographic perfection. The hat, a broad, luminous shape, acts as a halo, drawing the eye and framing the face in a play of light and shadow. Gittings uses the photographic medium not merely to represent but to explore the very nature of representation. The dots disrupt the conventional reading of the image, inviting us to question the stability of the photographic sign. Through these defacements, Gittings destabilizes traditional portraiture, prompting a reconsideration of how we perceive form and content. The work becomes a commentary on photography’s inherent ability to both reveal and obscure.