For Secret Ceremony 2000

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print titled, "For Secret Ceremony," and what strikes me is the way he creates a kind of theater of objects on the surface of the photographic paper. The high contrast and shallow depth of field make the composition feel both intimate and slightly unsettling. A hand holding a pair of scissors, a box of “Jumbo Magic Black Snakes,” and some indiscernible objects hover in a murky space, as though arranged for some arcane ritual. The red markings around the edges and the scrawled spirals in the lower center enhance the feeling of an esoteric rite. The blurry quality and stark tonal range add to the sense of mystery and foreboding, like a memory half-forgotten or a dream just out of reach. The composition reminds me of some of the surrealist photography of Man Ray or the staged photographs of Hannah Hoch. It is the kind of image that invites us to project our own associations and anxieties onto its enigmatic forms.