Dock 1941 - 1945

Robert Frank’s photograph, Dock, captures a quiet, grey moment, maybe from the mid-20th century. I imagine Frank, camera in hand, drawn to the stillness of the boats, lined up like sleepy sentinels on the water. The light is soft, diffused, kinda melancholic. It reminds me of Gerhard Richter’s blurred paintings. He and Frank were both German speaking, maybe they were drinking buddies. Frank was a master of capturing the poetry in the everyday. He used high contrast and the grain feels palpable. This wasn’t about technical perfection; it was about feeling, about mood, about a certain kind of seeing. The composition is so simple, so direct. It’s as if he just pointed his camera and clicked, trusting his eye, his gut, to find the story. The masts create a series of vertical lines that are echoed in the pilings of the dock. It is so calming. Artists like Frank, like Richter, they teach us to slow down, to look closer, to find beauty in the unexpected, the overlooked.