Valley--Landscape 1941 - 1945

Robert Frank shot this landscape, sometime in his life, with a camera. It’s a valley, sure, but it’s also a study in contrasts, light and dark, absence and presence. There’s this expansive blankness above, like a sky that's been wiped clean, pushing down on the intricate detail of the valley below. The way he captures the landscape, it feels less like a serene vista and more like a dense, almost claustrophobic space. See the road snaking through the hills? It pulls you in, but the shadows and the starkness of the light keep you at a distance. Frank always had this knack for finding the beauty in the grit, a sort of anti-Ansel Adams. It reminds me a little of some of the starkness you get with someone like Walker Evans, that documentary feel, but with a kind of personal, almost melancholic edge. It’s not just a valley; it’s a feeling.