From the Bus, New York 1958

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print, From the Bus, New York, sometime in the mid-20th century. What strikes me about this image is how Frank saw the world through a lens of gritty realism, yet he wasn’t afraid to play with perspective. Look at how the reflections create layers, blurring the line between what's real and what's mirrored. The stark contrast between the man outside the bus and the reflections on the vehicle's surface is pretty arresting. It feels like a study in contrasts: the solid figure of the man against the fluid, distorted shapes of the reflections. It’s this push and pull that gives the photograph its tension. This photo, with its raw, unfiltered look, reminds me a bit of some of the street photography by Helen Levitt, another artist who wasn’t afraid to capture the everyday in all its messy glory. And like Levitt, Frank invites us to see the world with new eyes, to find beauty and meaning in the most unexpected places.