Women in hats--San Francisco 1956

Robert Frank shot this small, silvery photograph, "Women in hats--San Francisco," sometime in the mid-20th century. You can almost see Frank holding his camera, trying to be quick, to catch this trio in their Sunday best. I'm looking at the woman in the fur stole on the right, and the shapes it makes remind me of brushstrokes—loose and gestural. Frank's pictures often feel painterly, capturing a fleeting moment, an emotional residue. He reminds me a little of Daumier, but with a faster shutter speed. And like Daumier, Frank is a master of social observation, recording the unspoken. You sense the weight of these women's lives, their quiet dignity. The light is soft, almost romantic, but there's a starkness too. Frank isn't afraid to show the grit, the unvarnished truth. He's part of a conversation with artists like Walker Evans, who paved the way for a new kind of photographic seeing. They embraced the everyday, finding beauty in the mundane, and showing us how to look, and really see.