Buildings at dusk--Los Angeles 1955

This is Robert Frank’s photograph, "Buildings at dusk—Los Angeles". He’s made this from a high vantage point, maybe a rooftop, somewhere, sometime in the mid-20th century. The grain of the image is quite heavy, it’s almost as if the silver is coming apart. The dark tones are broken up by bursts of white light from the street, and the film stock feels really alive. I’m drawn to the blurry silhouettes of the palm trees against the sky, which create a frieze across the top of the shot. In fact, these silhouettes are the real subject; the way the fuzzy edges dissolve into the atmosphere. It reminds me of some of Ed Ruscha’s work, but much darker in tone. Ultimately, it's about the relationship between photography, memory, and emotional experience. The image raises questions about how we perceive and remember urban landscapes. The meaning remains wonderfully ambiguous and open to interpretation.