Nuns--San Francisco 1956

Robert Frank shot "Nuns - San Francisco" using black and white film. The light is so flat, like an overcast day. I wonder, what was it like for Frank to compose this shot? What was he trying to find? Maybe the way the nuns' habits mimic the dark, boxy cars behind them? Or maybe it's the dark forms of the nuns against the blinding white of the sidewalk. Frank’s interested in surfaces, both literal and metaphorical. It's like he's asking, "What do we see, and what do we miss?" Frank's photographs often have this quality, a kind of off-kilter beauty, like something you'd see from Garry Winogrand or even Walker Evans. Artists keep having a conversation across time, inspiring each other. And that’s what this photograph does. It embraces uncertainty. It allows for multiple interpretations.