Untitled (couples kissing on New Year's Eve) 1949

Robert Burian made this untitled photograph of couples kissing on New Year's Eve, sometime in the twentieth century. It's all in shades of gray, like an old movie, or a dream. The tones are kind of reversed, like a photographic negative. I love the ghostly effect of the light and dark in this image. It’s full of embraces and New Year’s Eve revelry. But everyone is dressed as if they're in a hospital, or a theater, or some other kind of institution. The people seem to be wearing medical scrubs and hats, and in the center, a couple locked in an embrace. The composition, with its focus on the tender moment between two people in a crowd, reminds me a little of Garry Winogrand’s street photography. Like Winogrand, Burian captures a slice of life, a fleeting moment of human connection amidst the chaos of the city. But the dreamlike, almost surreal quality of the image gives it a unique power. It's a wonderful, strange picture.