Untitled (people standing at cocktail party) c. 1950

Editor: Here we have an untitled photograph by Lucian and Mary Brown depicting people at a cocktail party. Given the fashion, it feels mid-century. I find it unsettling, almost ghostly, like a memory fading. What do you make of it? Curator: It’s eerie, isn’t it? The high contrast adds to that spectral quality. I imagine a gathering, stiff and formal, with secrets simmering beneath the surface. The chandelier, like a frozen burst of light, casts a strange glow on everything. Do you sense a sort of theatricality, everyone playing a role? Editor: Absolutely, there's a staged feeling, yet the lack of title suggests something ordinary captured. Curator: Maybe it’s the Browns hinting at the extraordinary lurking within the everyday. It certainly gives you pause, doesn’t it? Editor: It does! I'll never look at a cocktail party the same way again.