Shining shoes, reflection in cigarette machine mirror--New Mexico 1955

This photograph, ‘Shining shoes, reflection in cigarette machine mirror—New Mexico’ was taken by Robert Frank. Here, we see more than just a shoe shine. It’s like Frank has painted a whole environment with light and shadow. The mirror of the cigarette machine isn’t just reflecting an image; it's pulling us into another world, one of labor and reflection. You can almost smell the polish and feel the anticipation of the guy getting his shoes shined. I wonder what Frank was thinking when he snapped this. Was he pondering the everyday rituals, the small moments of human interaction? This reminds me of some of the New York School painters, like what Philip Guston did, finding the profound in the mundane, turning the ordinary into something monumental. It is not so much about what is represented but about how it feels.