Hungarian Debutante Ball, New York City 1977

Larry Fink snapped this picture, "Hungarian Debutante Ball, New York City," with a camera, of course, and the whole scene is caught in black and white, which kind of flattens everything into shades of gray and makes you focus on the shapes and the light. I'm really drawn to the way Fink plays with focus here. The people in the foreground, they're sharp, you can see every detail, especially in their faces and the glasses on the tray. But then, the background just kind of melts away, all soft and blurry. It’s like he's saying, "Here’s what’s important, and here’s everything else fading into the background." Check out how the black ribbon on the debutante’s dress ties the whole thing together, literally and figuratively. It draws your eye down and gives the piece a sense of movement and depth. I think of other photographers who played with light and shadow, like Diane Arbus, but Fink has his own way of making the ordinary feel kind of electric, don’t you think?