Street scene, Geneva--40 Fotos 1941 - 1945

Curator: I find myself immediately drawn to the texture in this photograph. The palpable sense of a cold, snowy day. Editor: That’s exactly what I noticed. The photograph, titled “Street scene, Geneva – 40 Fotos” by Robert Frank and estimated to be taken between 1941 and 1945, employs a gelatin-silver print that beautifully captures the essence of a city street burdened with a wintery snowfall. The granular quality really brings it to life. Curator: Absolutely. Thinking about the silver gelatin process, its standardization and use at this time opens some ideas about accessibility of image making as a wider industrial and artistic phenomenon. It isn't just an artistic medium. The reproducible nature of this process allows Frank to circulate this vision. Editor: And this reproducibility certainly had political implications, especially during the war years. This wasn't just about documentation. Frank uses realism not only as an aesthetic choice but also as a public act. It prompts the question of how the image can be received, given various states of cultural knowledge. It reminds me of the accessibility demanded from Soviet photography at the time. Curator: I completely agree. And notice how the figures walking away aren't posed, seemingly caught in a moment. It's this casualness that heightens the feeling of reality. Editor: These are everyday figures; these aren't heroic figures celebrated in monuments and grand sculptures. Yet, Frank gives dignity to their quiet resilience as the snow continues to blanket them. It’s that humanness I find compelling and its commitment to democratized representations in a turbulent time. Curator: Yes, by highlighting this everyday, unglamorous scene. The stark contrast really focuses attention on the social experience of weather. And he utilizes simple readily available resources. In turn it seems like his street photos like these gave way to movements like the vernacular photography in the late 20th century. Editor: Frank provides a window into a specific time and place through the mundane. That it lives on within museum walls speaks volumes about his work. It reveals a great deal about not just the social landscape during the wartime but about the politics of our memory and how we decide to enshrine moments in time. Curator: It is powerful to observe how Frank captured not just an image but a moment that persists across time due to materiality. Editor: Indeed. The intersection of daily life, materiality, and historical record all wrapped up in this seemingly simple image.