From the Bus, New York 1958

Robert Frank made this photograph, From the Bus, New York, at an unknown date using photography. Isn’t it great? The high-contrast black and white gives the image a stark, almost confrontational feel. It's less about capturing a scene perfectly, and more about grabbing a feeling on the go. Look at the surface, it's not slick, it’s got grit, like he developed it himself, maybe in a rush. The shadows are intense, almost swallowing the lone figure crossing the street, and the bus itself, our point of view, is cut off, cropped. That cropping, that's what I think about. It's like a painter making a quick sketch, not fussing over every detail. There's something about how this shot reminds me of the paintings of someone like Gerhard Richter. He used photography as a basis for his paintings, making them blurry, almost out of reach. What do you think? Maybe photography is a painting too.