Switzerland 3 1961

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print, "Switzerland 3", likely sometime in the mid-20th century, and the contact sheet gives you the feeling of the artist being at work in the darkroom. The range of images that Robert Frank presents here are kind of like a painter's color palette: some landscapes, portraits and abstract compositions. Frank’s work always has a certain graininess, which speaks to the immediacy of his process and his interest in capturing spontaneous moments. Note the cropped edges and the film markings. The orange border is like a painting with a strong contour line that really contains the images. You might know the work of another great photographer, Garry Winogrand, who also worked with the accidental, and like Frank, he embraced the snapshot aesthetic, showing us how art can be found in the everyday. Ultimately, the beauty of art lies in its ability to show us different ways of seeing.