New York City IV c. 1953 - 1954

Robert Frank's film strip, New York City IV, captures a series of moments, a collection of street scenes, objects, and faces, and maybe Frank was wandering with his camera, making marks in the city. I imagine him walking and stopping, shooting, then moving again, framing the world in snippets. There’s a car on a ramp, a building, a diner table with a chess game maybe. It reminds me that painting is a sequence of decisions—each stroke, each layer, building up to the final image. Like frames in a film, each shot informs the next, creating a narrative. Frank’s work isn’t just about photography; it's about seeing and selecting. Like painting, it’s an embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, inviting multiple interpretations. It makes you reflect that every artist borrows and steals from the world around them, inspiring new forms of creativity.