From the bus 61 1958

Robert Frank's 'From the bus 61' presents us with a black and white contact sheet, raw with process, each frame a glimpse of street life, or maybe just life, from a bus window. I like how immediate it feels. Looking at the sequence, it’s all about movement and chance – a bus ride becomes a study in seeing. Some shots are sharp, others blurry, like memories half-formed. This one strip, that shows the bus pulling away, circled in red, captures it so well. The composition, the use of light and shadow, it's so New York! It reminds me of the work of Helen Levitt, another street photographer who captured the poetry of everyday life. But where Levitt focused on people, Frank seems more interested in the city itself. For Frank, like any good artist, art wasn't about answers, but about the ongoing, beautiful, messy conversation of seeing.