Public street dancing in Moscow in 1947

Two women dance together in the middle of a crowded Moscow square, caught mid-step by the camera of Robert Capa, one of the most famous war photographers of the twentieth century. This black and white photograph dates from 1947, just two years after the end of World War II, when Capa traveled through the Soviet Union with the writer John Steinbeck. The pair documented everyday life behind what would soon be called the Iron Curtain, and their trip became the book "A Russian Journal." The woman with the headscarf looks directly into the lens, her expression hard to read, while her dancing partner gazes off to the side.

What makes this image stick with you is the ordinary humanity of it. The country had lost millions of men in the war, so it was common to see women dancing with each other in public gatherings. The crowd of faces stretching into the background gives the scene a real sense of place and moment. Capa was a master at finding genuine emotion in unguarded seconds, and here he traded the battlefield for a public celebration, showing people simply trying to enjoy life again after years of hardship.