Doorway--Elko, Nevada 1956

Robert Frank shot “Doorway--Elko, Nevada” with a camera, sometime in the mid-twentieth century. The light in this photograph is so interesting - harsh and contrasty, black and white. This door almost looks like a painting, doesn’t it? I wonder what Frank was thinking when he made it? The black door suggests a mystery. The viewer can’t see into the building, so the building’s purpose remains unknown. I can imagine the surface of the door, the reflections on the window. I'm not sure what is real and what is a reflection. Frank was interested in the everyday, but making something extraordinary out of it. Many other photographers were doing similar things, then and now, trying to capture ordinary life, but Frank really brought a personal perspective to it, making his work stand out. It’s a conversation across time, isn’t it, and that’s what makes art so interesting.