Untitled (crowded dance floor seen from above) 1965

This snapshot by Robert Burian captures a crowded dance floor seen from above, and it’s the inversion of tones that really grabs me. It’s as if the artist is showing us the energy of the room, rather than the literal scene. The high-contrast negative image gives a ghostly feel. The white figures are packed together, and that makes it hard to make out any individual faces or movements. The light bleeds and blurs, obscuring details, heightening the sense of motion and chaos. My eye is drawn to the dark shapes in the dresses; they ground the image and offer a bit of respite from the intensity of the crowd. This image reminds me of some of the works by Lisette Model, who like Burian, understood how photographic image making could be used to capture an atmosphere, leaving interpretation open.