Blind girl--Times Square, New York City no number 1953

Robert Frank shot this contact sheet, "Blind girl--Times Square, New York City no number," sometime in the mid-20th century, using I guess a standard camera and film. Looking at this, I imagine him wandering around New York, camera in hand, always searching for the right shot, the perfect moment. I feel for him in his search for images. Photography is hard; you have to walk around and wait. Here, you get a real sense of his process, seeing all these frames together. You see the outtakes, the near misses, and the few that really sing, all laid out. It’s like seeing a painter's preliminary sketches, all the thinking and feeling that goes into the final piece. He's using the camera to work out a feeling he had about the world. It's raw and immediate, much like abstract expressionism. Each frame tells a story, and together, they give you a peek into Frank's vision.