23rd Street weddings--New York City no number c. 1953 - 1954

Robert Frank created this contact sheet for "23rd Street weddings" in New York City. What a treat to see Frank’s process here, laid out on the sheet. I imagine Frank in the darkroom, hunched over, his hands maneuvering the paper, the smell of the chemicals pungent in the air. See how the light is playing through the images? Some shots are clear and sharp, while others are blurred or tilted, as if the camera itself were dancing. The composition feels spontaneous and real, rather than posed or stuffy. I’m drawn to the section of the sheet where you can see the wedding party gathered in the street. They are captured from multiple angles, each telling a slightly different version of the story. The way Frank crops and arranges these images reminds me of Kurt Schwitters and his collages, bringing together fragments of reality to create something new. It reminds me of painting, too, in the way that the artist adds, subtracts, and edits to find what they were trying to say. I find it comforting that artists like Frank continue to influence each other across time, inspiring us to see the world in new ways.