Zero Mostel--Bed story for "Harper's Bazaar" 22 1962

Robert Frank captured Zero Mostel for Harper's Bazaar in this photographic contact sheet. It’s fascinating to see this whole storyboard laid out—these small frames are a testament to Frank's process of exploration and experimentation. I imagine him moving around the actor and the bed, trying different angles, playing with the light, capturing the mood, the pose. You know, there’s this really lovely sense of intimacy, seeing Mostel so relaxed, so caught up in his own world. You can see how Frank is thinking. It is not about one perfect shot, but about capturing something more elusive, more real, more unstable. He is really saying something here about how one moment becomes another. It is like he knows that uncertainty is not a weakness, but a strength. Just like a painter makes many marks, Frank is layering image after image, embracing accident and chance.