Workers leaving Esso plant--Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1955

This photograph of workers leaving the Esso plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was taken by Robert Frank. It’s a very physical image, not just in terms of the subject matter. Look at how Frank coaxes so much grey from his materials. It’s like he's wrestling with light and shadow. The grainy texture, the stark contrasts, really hit you in the gut. There’s a man in the foreground with a cigarette hanging from his lips, the smoke a fleeting wisp in the air, and the newspaper tucked under the arm of another guy, a symbol of the everyday grind. Those hard hats, they're like halos, but for labor, for the working class. Frank’s work reminds me a little bit of Walker Evans, that same eye for the mundane, but with a rawer, more personal edge. What does this photo mean? Who can say? It's a slice of life, a moment in time, but it's also a whole world of stories.