Drive-in theater--Lander, Wyoming 1956

This is a photograph of a drive-in theater in Lander, Wyoming, taken by Robert Frank. It’s a gelatin silver print, all greys and silvers. The sky is filled with drama, but the screen is blank, waiting for a movie that never starts. I imagine Robert Frank, out there in the American West, feeling lonely, maybe a bit melancholic, as if at the end of the world. He’s got his camera, and he’s making this document, but also making an emotional record. Look how the dark foreground presses up against the horizon! The screen is like a beacon, but also a question mark: what are we waiting for? It reminds me of other photographs of that time. Something about the light and the grain of the film stock, that makes this look like a still from a film, or a half-remembered dream. In art, as in life, nothing is ever truly finished or resolved. One artist's vision sparks another's, and the dialogue continues.