Portrait 297

In capturing the light on the metal grid (decorated with gold beads and thread) that holds the original oval christening portrait in place, Sharnoff’s photograph suggests a kind of radiograph. We seem to see an already sturdy child imprisoned in a womb, an X-ray of a child that has gown too fast, an incipient future that got stuck. The child will never get out; it has nowhere to go.

SG