Family at auto race--Los Angeles 1956

This silver gelatin print of a family at a Los Angeles auto race was shot by Robert Frank, though it’s hard to know exactly when. You can tell that Frank must have been moving quickly when he made this photograph. Look at how the composition is slightly off-kilter, a little rough around the edges. I wonder, what was he thinking, what was he feeling as he pressed the shutter? Maybe he had just caught sight of the weary, but determined, expression on the father's face as he carries a sleeping child. For me, there’s something so poignant and tender about the contrast between the loud, fast-paced environment of the auto race and this quiet family moment. I imagine that Frank identified with the man, the woman, the baby. This image has a narrative, but it also asks us to wonder about the circumstances, and what it means to capture a decisive moment. Like painting, photography is a form of mark making and Frank leaves his mark here.