France Scully Osterman

In 1996, while Mark and I traveled around Ireland with our portable darkroom making collodion negatives, I took a portrait of a twelve year old girl. It was a half-minute exposure, with no head brace, so she had slightly moved which gave it a painterly effect. I was delivering it, along with other prints for an exhibit. Standing in an elevator with this framed portrait leaning against my leg, a teenage boy looked at it with a puzzled expression. He said, “I don’t get it. Is it a photograph, or is it a painting?” I smiled and replied, “You get it.”