Men of Air/New York 1947

Robert Frank made this photograph, Men of Air/New York, at some point during his life, and it is a beautiful meditation on time and place. I really appreciate Frank's approach, the way he captures the immediacy of a scene with a sense of timelessness. Look at the grays in this image, which are wonderfully diverse. There's a real feeling of atmosphere, maybe even a little anxiety, created by the grainy texture and subtle tonal variations. The man floating in the air could be a circus performer, but he’s also Everyman, suspended between earth and sky, against the backdrop of skyscrapers that could be anywhere, or nowhere. It reminds me of the work of artists like Garry Winogrand. What both artists have in common is their ability to capture the fleeting moments of everyday life and imbue them with a sense of poetry and mystery. Isn't that what art is all about, the act of noticing, and finding meaning in the mundane?