Last post was about a Robert, this one's about another. Robert Frank was a Swiss Photographer who won the Guggenheim fellowship. He used that funding to tour across the United States, photographing different cities, different people, and culminated that with his photographic book, The Americans.

Frank toured through many cities, Houston included, but the image I included is one that drew me in. Titled "US 90" (1956), the photograph is of a woman in a car on the shoulder of a Texas highway. US 90 runs along the southern border of Texas. I had traveled down this highway in the summer of 2019 with a friend while on our way to see Marfa, Texas and White Sands, New Mexico.

I think that's why i gravitated towards it. I've been on that highway, some fifty-plus years after. And with the small amount of background exposition, I did get a sense of familiarity with the setting. I could imagine the temperature and feeling of the day just based off the image. And I think that's something other who may not have driven here could also take away. The desert is visible, and it's not hard to imagine was that would feel like

The main object in the image is the car. The camera is tilted at an angle that shows us half of the windshield and on headlight. Behind the car is the road, mountains, and possibly phone line poles. In the passenger seat is a woman looking forward, and a child with his head leaning against her shoulder.

The mood that i pick up is one of exhaustion. The kid is asleep. The woman look out of it. This highway, and west Texas for that matter, is known for how flat and "ugly" it is. All desert and heat. Flat. After Big Bend, there isn't much for a while. And the picture captures that through their expressions.