Westlake, California 1956

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print, Westlake, California, sometime during his lifetime. What strikes me first is the high contrast, the way the light and shadow play off each other across the composition. This tension between light and dark is so present. The framing is so interesting! A dark wooden fence dominates the foreground, creating a barrier between us and the scene beyond. Over the fence, there’s a row of houses receding into the distance, their roofs sharp against the sky. The textures are so varied – the smooth surface of the photographic paper, the rough grain of the wood, the soft focus of the distant hills. There's a deflated structure in one of the yards. It gives the impression of having been abandoned, a feeling echoed by the dark, almost oppressive fence. I feel like Frank is asking us to consider how we view not just the scene, but also how we are viewing the photograph itself. In a way, Frank reminds me of Walker Evans, another artist who found beauty in the everyday and overlooked.