This is a photograph found in an old album. Its a very humorus and original pose, and each person in the photo communicates some sense of their personality. This is probably the aesthetic key to portraiture. Something is communicated between the person in the picture and the viewer. Yet, it tends to be beyond words.

Notice the box camera in the foreground. I have something similar on a shelf here, a Brownie Junior 6-16, from some uncertain vintage. The one in the picture might be a senior, judging from the size difference. With two cameras on scene I suspect that this group was enamored of snapshots, which could explain the playfulness of the photograph. One tends to make eye contact with each person in the image. Each person has a certain presence, and there is some sense of connection from one time to another.