I love the ambiguity of this image, which I believe is a CDV that was scallop cut along the bottom before being mounted to the card, c. 1865. What is interesting to me about it is how the quality of the image to begin with combined with its aging over time make it feel very close to to a cut paper silhouette, and also almost as if it were a photograph of a statue, though details like the eyelashes and locks of hair surely point the former. Ultimately she feels as if she hovers in a sort of mysterious, ethereal in between space -- between periods, between styles, and between states of matter.

5” x 3 5/8”, housed as found in period frame with reverse painted glass, c. 1860s. Some foxing on both image and card and emulsion loss, as evident.