11th Street story 14 1951

Robert Frank created "11th Street story 14," a gelatin silver print, sometime in the mid-20th century. The images depict quotidian scenes, possibly on 11th street in New York. Presented as a strip of film, Frank’s image makes us consider the power of photography, its ubiquity, and its role in documenting ordinary lives. The cultural associations of black and white photography are important here. Shades of gray evoke a sense of realism, immediacy, and authenticity, while also seeming old-fashioned. Frank’s choice to show the photographic film is especially important, breaking the illusion of reality offered by the photograph, and reminding us of its status as a mechanically produced image. To understand Frank’s work better, we could research photographic archives and the history of documentary photography. Only through understanding this institutional history can we consider how Frank’s image comments on social structures and the politics of representation.