Untitled (model home, connected to garage) c. 1950

This photograph by Robert Burian, “Untitled (model home, connected to garage)” at the Harvard Art Museums, is a trip! It’s a black and white scene of suburban dreams, or maybe anxieties, printed on a small piece of paper. I can imagine Burian scoping out this archetypal house, the kind you see on every other street, deciding how to frame it, how to give it a twist. The high contrast makes the house feel a little ghostly, like a mirage in the night. He’s playing with light and dark, turning the familiar into something a bit strange. That empty garage space becomes almost sinister. What's lurking in that dark space? It’s like Edward Hopper meets the Twilight Zone. Maybe Burian was thinking about the American Dream, or maybe he just liked the way the light hit the roof. Either way, it's stuck with me.