New York City no number 1948

This is Robert Frank’s “New York City no number,” a photograph of a contact sheet printed on paper. He’s known for his raw, off-kilter style. I think the contact sheet is a great way to understand artmaking as a process. Here, Frank gives us not just the final image but the whole sequence of shots, failures, and almost-theres. The texture of the photographic paper and the film negatives makes the image feel really physical, almost sculptural. Look closely at frame 23, for example. It’s this hazy, almost ghostly image of the city skyline. Is it out of focus? Was the lens dirty? Is that why he didn't choose it? It’s evocative, mysterious. Like Frank, Helen Levitt also captured the streets of New York with a similar sense of spontaneity and grit. Ultimately, this piece reminds me that art doesn’t always have to be perfect or polished. Sometimes the most interesting things happen in the margins, in the experiments, in the process.