Untitled (woman holding baby to her shoulder) c. 1940

Paul Gittings’ photograph at the Harvard Art Museums presents a woman holding a baby, rendered in stark monochrome. The composition is dominated by contrasting light and shadow, reversing our tonal expectations. This inversion highlights the formal elements. The mother’s face, framed by softly lit hair, is a study in contrasts. The baby, nestled against her shoulder, mirrors this interplay of light and dark. The photo’s power lies in how it destabilizes conventional representations, echoing structuralist ideas about binary oppositions. Light and dark not only define form but also challenge our perceptions, inviting us to question the stability of meaning itself. The semiotic weight of this image rests in its disruption of established visual codes. By inverting the expected tones, Gittings forces us to reconsider the underlying structures of representation, suggesting that meaning is not fixed but contingent on context and perspective. The photograph asks us to reflect on how art continually reshapes our understanding of familiar themes.