The Palladium--New York City no number 1954

Robert Frank captured this photograph, "The Palladium--New York City," using a camera and film. I imagine Frank working in the darkroom, pulling the film from the camera, winding, bathing, and finally seeing these images appear. He’s a street photographer, sure, and this is a document, but the image also feels like a painterly investigation into light, shadow, and form. The black and white is stark, contrasty, yet it pulses with a strange energy. I see these strips of film as the artist’s sketch book, as a painter tries out different marks and erasures to discover the depth in the forms. I wonder about the editing process. How many photographs did Frank take at the Palladium? Which did he leave out? What was he thinking when he chose these frames? Like a painter, he must have been asking himself these questions. One artist in conversation with another, across time and space.