Robert Frank recognized the distinct role the automobile played in mid-century American culture. Having spent an extensive amount of time traveling on the road while creating The Americans, cars became a regular theme in his photographs, grounding his images in both a specific time and place. Taken in the Chicago Loop, Chicago, 1959 captures the rear bumper of a 1959 Cadillac perched at the top of a parking garage, basking in the sunlight, its stylish angularity projecting out from the surrounding rectangular buildings. Shot from below and featuring an almost heavenly bright light shining on the Cadillac, Frank presents the car as an object of reverence and harbinger of the American dream.