Interior of U.S. Café--Gallup, New Mexico 1955

Robert Frank made this photograph, "Interior of U.S. Café--Gallup, New Mexico," using black and white film. It makes me wonder, what was it like to stand there, with Frank, in that café? You can almost smell the stale smoke, and the sweet donuts, and hear the quiet rumble of voices. Look at that man in the foreground – cigarette in hand, cowboy hat casting a shadow over his face. What’s he thinking? What's his story? Frank captures this everyday moment, transforming it into something tender and profound. It's a painting, really, but made with light and shadow rather than brushstrokes. And you know, that's the thing about photographs and paintings both. They are little portals, little time machines, capturing one person's fleeting experience of being alive. The great photographers, like the great painters, are having an ongoing conversation, picking up where others have left off, expanding our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.