New York City IV c. 1953 - 1954

Robert Frank made this photographic contact sheet, New York City IV, by exposing light onto photo sensitive paper. It looks like a series of still moments, a kind of film strip almost, but made up of city scenes and everyday life. There's a kind of roughness to the piece, an immediacy which comes from the decision to share the process of image making, including what for others may be considered the failures. There's a kind of vulnerability in sharing the whole roll, a window into the artist's thinking and seeing. The dark frames in between each image create a grid, holding each image separate while also being connected. The overexposed frame almost stands out the most, a blank which acts as a pause or breath in between each image. Frank's work resonates with that of Garry Winogrand, a kind of street photography with a human eye. Ultimately, this piece reminds us that art is an evolving dialogue, embracing the unfinished and the ambiguous.