Mrs. Lopez and Six Confirmation Girls (Lower West Side series) 1974

This photograph, by Milton Rogovin, shows Mrs. Lopez with six young girls in their confirmation dresses. It's a black and white image, and I immediately wonder, what did confirmation mean to these young women? What did it mean to Mrs. Lopez? I find myself imagining the moment Rogovin took this photo. He was a humanist, a kind of street photographer, so he's probably chatting with them, getting a sense of the moment before snapping the picture. But what's going through their heads? The texture of the dresses jumps out, all that bright white fabric. Each girl has her own style; the range of ages feels very distinct. Their knee socks and shiny shoes remind me of my own awkward moments of dressing up as a kid. Rogovin made several series of photographs documenting working-class families. You can see a relationship between these girls, and this beautiful record of time and place. Rogovin gives us a window into their lives. Each photograph is a part of a larger conversation that artists are having with each other.