Men at bar--North Carolina 1955

This is Robert Frank’s photograph, Men at bar--North Carolina, and it looks to me like it was caught with a quick eye and a 35mm camera. I can almost smell the stale beer in this one, can’t you? I bet Robert Frank had to be quick. He's in the bar, but feels separate from the other customers. Like the act of photographing them is a way of getting closer, but it's also creating distance. What was he thinking when he clicked the shutter? I imagine he was trying to capture some kind of truth, or at least a feeling. Something about the way these men are just existing in that space, with their hats and their beers and their thousand-yard stares. The graininess of the image feels like a painting, and the depth of field is totally shallow, just like my paintings. And that light! It's so dim and dingy, but it catches just right on the bar top. Robert Frank is showing us a moment that feels both intimate and universal. I am sure he has influenced generations of photographers and filmmakers since. He is inviting them to see the beauty in the everyday.