Group in theater lobby, movie premiere--Hollywood c. 1955 - 1956

Robert Frank captured this group of people at a movie premiere in Hollywood with his camera. What was it like to be Frank, hanging back, deciding when to shoot? I imagine he felt like an outsider. He was interested in the margins, in the ordinary. The composition, like the steps up to the theater, creates a sense of depth. The way the light catches the edges of the frame, especially at the top of the stairs, draws you in, doesn't it? There is a mirror there too, and this makes me think about who we see ourselves to be, and what it is to be a spectator, looking at the spectacle. It reminds me of how Diane Arbus would take photographs, looking for the strange in the familiar. It is the kind of image-making that gets under your skin, it invites you to ask questions without offering easy answers. And in that way the artist can keep a conversation going, even across generations.