Hillside overlooking parking lot--Los Angeles 1956

Robert Frank shot this silver gelatin print called, “Hillside overlooking parking lot--Los Angeles”. It’s a landscape, a gathering place in an otherwise quiet hillside setting. I can only imagine what Frank might have been thinking when he captured this scene. Maybe he was interested in the contrast between nature and urban life, or the way people interact with their environment. The soft, hazy tonality gives the piece a dreamlike quality and a sense of timelessness. The composition leads my eye from the figures in the foreground toward the rows of cars parked in the distance. It reminds me of other photographers like Bernd and Hilla Becher, who documented industrial structures with a similar sense of detachment and precision. Works like this serve as a kind of visual poetry, inviting us to see the world in new and unexpected ways. They can give us a new perspective and make us appreciate the beauty in everyday life.