Subway 12 1955

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, Subway 12, using gelatin silver and a red marker. It's like a sketchbook page, but with photos. Frank shoots from the gut, kinda like how I paint. The way he frames each shot – some tight, some loose – it feels raw, like he's grabbing moments out of the air. And the grainy black and white, it's not about being pretty. It’s more about the grit, the realness. Look at the strip where people are crammed into the subway car. The faces are shadowed, anonymous. Yet, there's this feeling of shared experience, of being human together in a metal box hurtling under the city. The red number ‘12’ scrawled across the frame, it’s like a tag, marking this as a specific moment, a specific take. It reminds me of those little marks and notations I make on my canvases – a way of keeping track, of staying present in the process. I’m reminded of Walker Evans, another photographer who saw beauty in the everyday. But Frank, he pushes it further, into something more personal, more poetic. It’s a reminder that art isn’t about perfection; it's about seeing and feeling.