Street scene, Zurich 1941 - 1945

Editor: This is Robert Frank’s "Street Scene, Zurich," taken sometime between 1941 and 1945. The print has a kind of quiet tension to it; a candid moment captured, almost as if by accident. What leaps out at you when you see it? Curator: Accident, maybe. Destiny, more likely. It feels less about Zurich and more about a state of mind, wouldn't you say? The way Frank uses the heavy shadows to frame that almost ethereal view of the Grossmünster...it’s like glimpsing the soul through the mundane. Are those figures on the street going somewhere, or just haunting the landscape like wisps of smoke? What do you feel? Editor: Haunting is the right word. The shadows definitely create a sense of mystery. I keep looking at the figure walking towards us; almost a silhouette. What was life like in Zurich then? Does that inform how we should view the work? Curator: Ah, context! Always crucial, right? Imagine Zurich then: neutral, but with the war raging all around. That neutrality becomes a kind of…suspended animation. Doesn't it invite speculation about inner lives, the untold stories lurking behind those shadowy figures? Frank seems to be asking what it means to witness history, not just participate in it. Editor: That makes the photo feel so much more powerful, that sense of "suspended animation." Curator: Exactly! And Frank, a young Jewish man in Switzerland during those years, that lens becomes a shield, a mirror, and a confession all at once. Don't you think he captured not just a place, but a whole era, teetering on the edge of…well, everything? Editor: I hadn't thought about his personal context that way. It adds so many layers. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure! It’s a gift to see old pictures through new eyes!