34th Street--Early New York City no number 1953 - 1954

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, 34th Street—Early New York City no number, with a camera and film, sometime in the mid-20th century. It is a sequence of images, the result of the mechanical eye. I wonder what it was like for Frank to walk around New York City. Look at the range of light and shadow in these images. It feels like the city itself is a character, maybe the main character. A place both full of life, and yet isolating. This looks like the 34th street of old department stores, bright lights, crowds, and storefronts that have long since been replaced with Duane Reades. I like the blur. Like a Gerhard Richter squeegee painting. Photography, like painting, is about light, shadow, form, and composition. Frank was clearly influenced by painting, and, in turn, his photography has influenced countless painters. We’re all just talking to each other, you know? Making new marks, but always in conversation with the past.