Cysgodion

Inside the image.

A square black-and-white photographic cover shows two overlapping views of a woman’s head and shoulders. The larger, ghostlike portrait fills much of the left half: her face is turned towards the right, with the image fading and breaking into dark, irregular patches along its lower edge. A second, clearer portrait sits in the right foreground, showing the woman in three-quarter profile facing left. Her long, straight hair falls over her shoulders and across the lower right; her mouth is slightly open and her gaze is directed towards the other portrait. The two faces turn towards one another across a narrow central gap.

The portraits are tightly cropped, with the foreground figure’s shoulder and hair cut off by the bottom and right edges. Behind them, a pale glow at the upper left gives way to mid-grey around the centre and a darker grey field at the upper right. The lower portion is mostly near-black, especially beneath the left portrait, while the right figure remains lit against the dark ground. The tonal transitions are soft and hazy, and the contrast between the bright hair and face and the deep shadows gives the composition a layered, slightly spectral appearance.

Two lines of pale lettering cross the upper centre, over the portraits. The smaller, widely spaced line reads “el in fflur a’r band”; beneath it, much larger thin outlined letters read “Cysgodion”. The lettering is centred and overlaps the hair and background; its translucent, glowing appearance allows the photographic imagery to remain visible behind it. The image is monochrome throughout and has the soft, high-contrast look of a photographic montage.