Untitled (woman in sailor's outfit leaning on railing by pool and bar) c. 1940

This gelatin silver print by Paul Gittings captures a woman in a sailor's outfit leaning on a railing by a pool and bar. The photographic process itself is key to understanding this image. Gelatin silver prints, dominant in the 20th century, involve a negative exposed onto paper coated with light-sensitive silver halides, revealing its detail through developing and fixing. The tones of black and white give the image a timeless quality, allowing us to reflect on the sitter's pose and attire, and the setting in which the photo was taken. As a mode of image-making, photography democratized portraiture, making it accessible to a wider range of people than painting ever could. This photograph, with its staged scene, evokes a sense of constructed reality, blurring the lines between everyday life and aspirational imagery. By considering the materials and processes involved, we can appreciate the social context in which this image was created, and question the traditional distinctions between fine art and commercial photography.