Times Square--New York City 1 c. 1961

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print called, Times Square--New York City 1, sometime in the twentieth century. It's a contact sheet, a photographer's raw material, the first positive print made from a negative strip. I love that Frank leaves this so visible to us. It's process! There’s a fascinating contrast between the slick, glossy surfaces of the city and the grainy texture of the film. The high contrast of the black and white lends a stark, almost documentary feel. The red marker, circling certain frames, highlights Frank's choices, his editing process. This feels raw, like seeing an artist’s sketchbook. I am drawn to the frame in the middle of the composition where the image has a figure wrapped in the american flag. This piece reminds me a little of the work of Garry Winogrand, another street photographer who captured the energy of New York City with a similar sense of immediacy. Like Winogrand, Frank isn’t afraid to embrace the chaos and ambiguity of modern life, capturing a fleeting moment, a fragment of reality. Art, at its best, isn't about answers, but about provoking questions, inviting us to see the world in new ways.