Lincoln Park--San Francisco 1956

This black and white photograph, Lincoln Park – San Francisco, was captured by Robert Frank, and it’s all about composition, the arrangement of forms in space. The scene feels very still, everyone is paused. The man in the hat, maybe he's thinking about the dog, or not. What’s with all those steps? The dog seems to be waiting for the man, or maybe he’s about to run off and chase a squirrel. Frank was Swiss, and he brought a European sensibility to American photography. Like the great Henri Cartier-Bresson, he had a keen eye for the "decisive moment." Yet, Frank wasn't just about capturing; he was about feeling. I get the sense that he wasn’t afraid to show the grit, the in-between moments. This piece reminds me that, as artists, we're all in dialogue, responding to what came before and pushing it somewhere new.