Parade c. 1945

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print, titled Parade. I love how Frank, a Swiss guy, came to America and totally nailed the feeling of being an outsider looking in. You can sense the density of a crowd and the way it moves. What was it like for him, this little guy with his little camera, dodging and weaving through the crowd? The composition is a bit like a tipped-over pyramid, balanced just so. I’m imagining that push and pull of the band, a brassy wall of sound. Look at those flags, how they loom overhead. The black and white has a way of turning everything into a stark contrast, a battle between light and shadow, hope and struggle, the individual and the collective. This image reminds me that artists are always responding to what’s around them, what’s inside them, making something new out of the chaos of life.