Westlake, California 1956

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print, "Westlake, California," sometime in the middle of the last century. It's a document, but it feels more like a mood. It's about light, and shadow, and a particular kind of American sadness. The tones are all muted, like a memory. The houses recede down the street in near darkness. What really gets me are the telephone wires cutting across the sky. They feel like a visual representation of the alienation Frank was so good at capturing. Look at the way the houses are all the same, yet different somehow. Each one seems to be shrinking back from the road. It's a lonely feeling, but it's also beautiful. Like Edward Hopper, Frank finds a certain beauty in the mundane, the everyday. It reminds you that art isn't just about pretty pictures; it's about seeing the world in a different way.