Writers, NBC TV studio--Burbank, California 1956

Robert Frank made this photograph, “Writers, NBC TV studio—Burbank, California,” with a camera, of course. It’s a scene, captured, not staged, of writers around a table. The blacks are rich and velvety, but it's the greys that do the work here, giving the image its depth and mood. The men are captured in mid-thought, pens poised, faces furrowed in concentration. Look at the hands, how they gesture and hold, each telling its own story of the writing process. The light flickers across the scene, catching the edges of the typewriters and glinting off the paper. It reminds me of those old black and white movies, full of grit and truth. You can feel the weight of the untold stories in the room, the potential energy humming beneath the surface. Like the work of Garry Winogrand, the photograph speaks of the poetry of the everyday. It embraces the messiness of life and art.