Winter--New York City no number 1957

This contact sheet, "Winter--New York City," was made by Robert Frank, who, like all good photographers, has a painter's eye. Here's a guy, Frank, walking around in the snow, in a city, thinking. How could this scene be anything but beautiful? Each frame is a slightly different angle on the same feeling—the soft glow of streetlights barely cutting through the falling snow. It's like he's trying to see if he can find the thing he's looking for, that "special" thing that only a photograph can capture, and yet, he knows it’s also just ordinary life unfolding. It’s a beautiful and quiet set of moments, captured in a city that never sleeps, which is maybe why he liked it. And now we do too.