Phyllis Archibald Clay

Phyllis Archibald Clay spent her life between darkrooms and diners, printing photos by day and shooting the breeze over coffee at 2 a.m. She never signed her prints, but you can spot her work by the way the neon sign bleeds into a face like it’s still arguing with the night. Look up "Untitled (Photograph)" from the early 1970s, it’s a single frame of a woman’s hands cupped around a cigarette, the smoke curling like a question mark over the counter.