Florence--Italy 10 1964

Robert Frank made this contact sheet of Florence, Italy, probably with a Leica camera. It’s a record of a process, a sequence of instants captured on film. I love how the rigidity of the grid contrasts with the fluidity of Frank’s gaze, which is intuitive. He plays with perspective, turning the camera up to the light and down towards the ground. The black and white is stark, offering a directness, a sense of immediacy, that color sometimes obscures. The scratches and dust on the negative speak of a real, imperfect moment, an index of lived experience. Look at the shadows, the way they slice through the scenes, distorting the architecture. Frank was a master of the snapshot aesthetic. Like his contemporary, Garry Winogrand, he elevates the everyday to the level of art. He reminds us that photography is as much about feeling as it is about seeing. Art is an ongoing conversation about different ways of seeing and being in the world.