Times Square--New York City 9 c. 1961

This contact sheet comes from Robert Frank, and the traces of his process give me chills. Imagine Robert Frank in Times Square, wrestling with the chaos, maybe wondering if he’s got anything at all, clicking away. The urban blur, the fragments, that nervous energy, all framed within the rigid grid of the film strip, like a storyboard of fleeting moments. It makes me wonder, what was he seeing, what was he feeling? And why these specific frames, marked, circled like clues in a visual mystery? It’s almost as if the editing marks are another layer of the composition, not just directive but expressive. Frank’s in conversation with the world, and with himself. He embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, opening up his vision of the world to multiple interpretations.