11th Street story 2 1951

Robert Frank's photo contact sheet, *11th Street story 2*, offers a gridded glimpse into a New York street, capturing quotidian moments in a rough-and-ready style. Looking at it, I imagine Frank out on the streets, grabbing shots, maybe testing out angles, trying to capture the grit and rhythms of everyday life. I love the idea that a contact sheet gives you this behind-the-scenes peek into the editing process. Each frame feels like a quick sketch, a fleeting impression. It's about the immediacy and the raw energy, like the visual equivalent of a blues riff. You get a sense of the city's pulse, its inhabitants going about their business, everything captured with a kind of off-the-cuff honesty. It reminds me a little bit of what Helen Levitt was up to around the same time, documenting street life with a similar sense of spontaneity and a keen eye for the everyday.