Times Square--New York City 13 c. 1961

This is a photographic film strip, titled Times Square--New York City 13, made by Robert Frank. It’s a contact sheet, a sequence of different shots. I love how the images are tightly packed together, separated only by the thin band of the film's edge. It's like flipping through pages of a sketchbook, seeing a series of experiments, a process of seeing, as each frame offers a slightly different take on the same place. I notice that the monochrome palette gives everything a timeless feel, but the graininess of the film and the high contrast adds a raw, edgy feel. Look closely and you can see the dust, the scratches, the imperfections of the film itself. They remind us of the physical process of photography, the artist's hand, and the way that chance and accident can play a role in the final image. This reminds me of other artists interested in the accidental, like Gerhard Richter, who understood the beauty in chance encounters, and the acceptance of the unpredictable nature of life.