Die Landschaft (Landscape) 1-12 1942 - 1946

Robert Frank's ‘Die Landschaft (Landscape) 1-12’ is a gridded set of photographs, twelve windows onto a snow-laden forest. I imagine Frank, out in the cold, lugging his camera through the drifts. Each frame is a little study in light and shadow, a kind of obsessive cataloging of trees doing their thing in winter. It's like Frank is speaking to other photographers, or maybe just to himself, saying, “Look, the way the light hits those branches!” The texture of the snow looks heavy. It's a reminder that Frank, who is known for his street photography, also has a very strong connection to nature and the natural world. You can see him thinking, playing with repetition and variation. Artists are always in conversation. One artist makes something, and another responds, sometimes years later. Frank's landscapes remind us that even in the starkness of black and white, there’s a riot of visual information to be explored.