Times Square--New York City 8 c. 1961

This is "Times Square—New York City 8" by Robert Frank, who made it using gelatin silver print. It’s like he's giving us a glimpse into his mind, a snippet of memory. It's a real process piece, showing the layers of decisions and the outtakes, which normally we'd never get to see. The texture is raw and honest, the high contrast and graininess adding to the immediacy. It feels like the surface of the film is right there in front of you. Look at the way Frank frames certain images with grease pencil, maybe a second thought, a way of reconsidering. It reminds me of how some painters like to leave their underpainting visible. Frank is saying it's not about the perfect image, but about the searching, the seeing, the feeling of a place. Like John Cage, he’s reminding us that art is everywhere, even in the mistakes.