Caerau, Wales 1953

"Caerau, Wales" was made in 1951 by Robert Frank using photography. Look at the way Frank creates tone through the stark contrast of light and shadow, it feels brutal, like a woodcut. There’s an immediacy to his work, a sort of snapshot aesthetic, that almost feels like a sketch. I’m struck by the way the composition divides the space, that wall looming on the left, a hard edge meeting the flow of the street. The figures are pressed up against it, while the street is dominated by the dog running free, a symbol of something? Frank’s black and white has this incredible range, from the deep matte blacks to the shimmering grays in the wet street, all of it grainy and raw. It doesn’t hide anything. Frank always reminds me a little of Walker Evans, a shared interest in the everyday, but Frank had a more European sensibility, a darker vision. This image, like all great art, resists easy answers, and invites endless contemplation.