Flag Painted on Building, Las Vegas 1955

Robert Frank made this photograph of a flag painted on a building in Las Vegas, and it’s full of such heavy greys. I’m always drawn to photographs that aren’t trying to sell me something, but just show me a world as it is. Look at the utility pole cutting through the sky; it’s like a dark mark making a statement, like a deliberate brushstroke. The texture of the sky, those heavy clouds, they give the image a tangible weight, a feeling of a place burdened by something. The American flag on the building, it’s faded and ghostly, like a memory. It’s not a clear, crisp representation, but something weathered and worn, just like the building it’s painted on. It's melancholic. Frank reminds me a bit of Walker Evans, both capturing America without the sugar coating. It makes you think about what it means to see, to really see, the world around you. It’s this kind of raw, unfiltered perspective that makes art so endlessly fascinating.