Pueblo--Taos, New Mexico 1955

Robert Frank made this black and white photograph, Pueblo--Taos, New Mexico, sometime in the mid-twentieth century. I’m immediately drawn to the sign in the foreground that reads: "RESTRICTED AREA, PLEASE KEEP OUT, ORDER OF GOV." What must it have been like to stand in that particular spot, camera in hand? Frank, an outsider, pointing his lens at a community with its own rules and boundaries. There’s a quiet tension in this image, a sense of wanting to observe and understand, but also respecting the distance. The architecture is beautiful – those soft adobe walls against the stark sky. I feel Frank trying to find a balance between capturing the realness of the place and the feeling of being an outsider. The textures, the light, they all whisper stories of a place both familiar and remote. It reminds me that making art is often about navigating these spaces between seeing and feeling.