From the bus 16 1958

Robert Frank’s series of photographs titled, From the Bus 16, uses black and white film to produce a study sheet of city life. It’s like he's laying out a bunch of little sketches, or maybe a painter trying out different color combinations. Each frame, a world of its own, yet part of a bigger story. The grain! It’s so raw. It feels like the city’s grit is right there on the surface. Look at how he frames a seemingly mundane street corner in one frame, then, in the next, a figure hurrying by. It’s about the stuff we usually don't pay attention to. And that dark and light contrast? It's moody, like a film noir. There is nothing polished about this. It’s all about feeling, about capturing a moment. I think about other photographers who capture the poetics of the everyday, like Helen Levitt. But Frank, he’s got this edge, a kind of beautiful sadness. Art, just like life, never really settles down, does it?