23rd Street--New York City I 1953

This is "23rd Street--New York City I," a photographic work by Robert Frank. It's a contact sheet – a document of process, all the shots from a roll of film laid out like a storyboard. I'm thinking about Frank walking around 23rd Street, his camera his constant companion. What was he looking for? A feeling? A fleeting moment of truth? It's all here: kids playing, people sitting on benches, glimpses of the city. You see him circling his subject, trying different angles, getting closer, moving away. Each frame is a little experiment, like a painter trying out different brushstrokes. The whole sheet becomes a kind of map of his looking, his thinking. And in the end, it’s the sum of all these fragments that really grabs you. It's not about a perfect picture, but about the messy, beautiful act of seeing. It’s a conversation.