Russian Ball, New York City 1976

Larry Fink took this photograph, Russian Ball, New York City, sometime in the twentieth century. Look at the tonal range going on, the lights and darks. I think of a painter like Goya, working with a limited palette to convey maximum emotion and depth. I imagine Larry Fink, roaming around with his camera, a kind of social anthropologist, trying to capture something essential about these people, their lives, their poses. What's it like to be in that room? The figures are so formal, and yet the grainy texture of the image gives it an edge, a sense of immediacy. I am curious about how it might feel to be dressed up like that, at that party. There's something about the woman’s expression, that says so much about her interiority. The man looks concerned, but she’s cool, maybe even a little defiant. There's a whole story in that one glance! Great artists have always borrowed from one another, riffing on themes and approaches, making something new and personal out of what came before. It's all connected.