Elder Helen Odessa Gillis, Greater Mt. Sinai Gospel Tabernacle, Cape Charles, Virginia 1999

This is a photograph by Mary Ellen Mark, Elder Helen Odessa Gillis, Greater Mt. Sinai Gospel Tabernacle, Cape Charles, Virginia. I love this image because it has a formal quality, but it's so intimate. The stark monochrome lets the textures speak, from the crinkled plastic table cover to the pleated details of Elder Gillis's incredible hat. It's the hat that gets me. The way it radiates light, framing her face like a halo, it feels so sculptural. The rest of the scene is almost domestic, there's a strange snow globe on the table, but she seems like an icon. I think of Irving Penn's portraits, the way he found the extraordinary in the ordinary. Both artists are interested in the texture of things, how the surface tells a story. What kind of story do you think the artist is trying to tell?