Untitled (women wearing dresses, onstage) 1946

This small black and white photograph, Untitled (women wearing dresses, onstage), by Robert Burian, is a modest snapshot of a moment. It’s the kind of image that hints at a story, but leaves you to fill in the blanks. The image shows six women standing in a line on a stage, all wearing dresses. The composition has a directness that feels almost accidental. This lends it an incredible sincerity. It’s the unpretentious nature of the image that gets me, its humble, homespun quality. I’m drawn to the almost clumsy handling of the medium, the way the figures are slightly blurred and the lighting is uneven. It’s like a little poem about the everyday, about community. The overall effect is strangely touching. It reminds me a bit of some of the early photography of Lisette Model, who also had a knack for capturing the raw, unvarnished truth of human experience.