Untitled (debutantes preparing for ball) c. 1966

Robert Burian made this small, maybe snapshot-sized, photograph called 'Untitled (debutantes preparing for ball)' and what strikes me is the way he’s captured a moment of anticipation. The light, as it falls on the figures, feels provisional, as if still being worked out. The material quality here is all about tonal range, right? The way the different shades of grey interact, creating a kind of shimmering surface that almost feels like an abstract field, yet it's also undeniably a photograph of a group of young women in gowns. Look at the way Burian uses light to define the shapes of the dresses, the way it almost bleeds into the figures, softening the edges. It’s this kind of tension between abstraction and figuration that I find so compelling. It puts me in mind of how Gerhard Richter used photographic source material in his paintings, embracing the blurriness as a way of questioning the image. Here, Burian seems to be doing something similar, inviting us to question the nature of representation itself.