Car accident—U.S. 66, between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona 1955

Robert Frank shot this photograph somewhere between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona with, I'm guessing, a handheld camera. It’s a difficult image, for sure. It makes me think about the ethics of looking, the distance between the photographer and the scene, and how a single shot can become a cultural artifact. I think Frank was wrestling with what it means to document reality, especially when that reality is raw and painful. The composition—the starkness of the landscape, the covered body, and the figures standing there—it all feels so immediate, like we're dropped right into the middle of a terrible moment. I can see the influence of Walker Evans in his work, a similar interest in the everyday and a certain deadpan delivery, but with this added layer of personal emotion. Photographers like Frank remind us that image-making is always a conversation. It is a way of grappling with the world, one frame at a time.