Military men on bridge c. 1945

Robert Frank made this photograph, Military men on bridge, sometime in the mid-20th century, with a camera and film. What strikes me is how Frank has constructed a way of seeing, or experiencing the world, through the arrangement of the image. The formal elements are layered, a bit like a painting. There’s a tension between the structured steel of the bridge and the soft blur of the figures. The light, too, plays a huge role, casting shadows that obscure details, hinting at untold stories. Look at the texture and the greyscale here. The surface of the photo has a tactile quality, a kind of graininess that almost feels like you could touch it, a bit like charcoal. The figures are cropped in such a way that their gaze is obscured. This draws you into their world and invites you to join their thoughts. Frank always felt more like a filmmaker, or a poet, and his work still speaks to artists today.