Eye 1941 - 1945

Curator: Up next we have Robert Frank's "Eye", a gelatin-silver print he created sometime between 1941 and 1945. Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by its raw intensity. The extreme close-up, the high contrast of the silver print—it all feels very confronting and intimate, almost unsettlingly so. Curator: Frank often challenged traditional portraiture, didn't he? By isolating a single body part, the eye, the work demands viewers consider ideas of identity and perception outside of typical aesthetic conventions. It begs the question, how much can an eye reveal? Editor: Absolutely, this echoes the concerns with objectivity and voyeurism in photography that was very present at the time. By focusing on such a vulnerable point, what does it mean regarding power dynamics? Whose eye are we looking at and in what context was this photograph taken and publicly displayed? What does it say that this artist choose this particular depiction? Curator: That's precisely the kind of discussion that makes Frank's work so enduring! The use of the gelatin-silver process, combined with his chosen vantage point, amplifies every minute detail. Every line, lash, and nuance surrounding the eye is amplified; in the social landscape that was photography and printing at the time this would speak to some socio-political concerns such as transparency and truth. Editor: It also disrupts idealized beauty standards. There’s no Photoshopping here! It displays this aspect of a person authentically and radically, and asks important questions around photographic truth. Curator: I appreciate how it also captures a kind of timeless human vulnerability. It is as relevant today in terms of image construction as it would have been during Frank's practice. Editor: Yes, considering this work prompts us to explore what a simple "portrait" can convey and the weight images can bare.