Robert Frank’s photograph, “Trolley — New Orleans, 1955” appeared on the cover of his famous book which laid bare America’s dark side. I made this photo with no conscious recollection of Mr. Frank’s image, however I am clear I was under his influence. I have always liked this motif. Frank’s image is much more complex and layered than mine, containing four figures whose faces are clearly visible, and a row of blurred reflections from small windows above the passengers. He tended to capture his subjects in angry distressed moods, or else appearing lost and forlorn.

The subject of my photo, an Arab woman approaching her middle years, appears neither angry nor adrift. I would call her expression world-weary without being downtrodden, sad but optimistic — taking a moment to relax away from a difficult life. The man behind her reveals the tension underlying the scene: he is hunched over as if in pain, and his left hand grasps the back of the woman’s seat with a claw-like intensity.