Float, Rose Bowl Parade--Pasadena, California 1956

Robert Frank made this photograph titled, Float, Rose Bowl Parade--Pasadena, California, on film. It's a black and white image that somehow manages to feel both intimate and detached. The surface of the print is a little rough and grainy, like life maybe? There's a figure, partially obscured by foliage, maybe even consumed by it, and the light creates these stark contrasts, making the image almost sculptural. Look at the way the leaves on the right frame the dancer, it's all about how you see, what you choose to focus on. I'm reminded a little of Diane Arbus, with that same sense of documenting the overlooked, the strange beauty in the everyday. But where Arbus is direct, Frank is more oblique. He leaves room for doubt, for interpretation. It's a reminder that art isn't about answers, it's about asking questions.