Filming 1941 - 1942

Robert Frank captured "Filming" with his camera, fixing a moment in time on a small sheet—less than 4 by 5 inches. The image presents three men standing in the snow, outside a building, each with their own air of self-possession. I'm thinking about the "decisive moment", you know, that thing Henri Cartier-Bresson was on about. Here, Frank seems less interested in catching action and more in the stillness, the quiet anticipation of something about to happen. What were these men doing? Perhaps they were readying themselves for the camera, or maybe they were just caught in a casual pause, and the camera just happened to be there, watching. There is an element of chance and of the street in his work, but here there’s also something more posed, arranged. It reminds me of August Sander's portraits, that interest in types, professions. Anyway, Frank’s photographs, like paintings, invite us to linger, to question, and to find beauty in the everyday. They keep the conversation going, across time.