Festival--Children c. 1941

Robert Frank captured this photograph, "Festival—Children," using gelatin silver. It's a small picture, like a quick thought jotted down. Frank wasn't interested in slick surfaces. The tones range from bright white to deep blacks, with many areas in-between appearing smudgy, reflecting the gritty reality of everyday life. It feels spontaneous, like he just grabbed his camera and snapped the picture without much fuss. Look at the little boy's face; how his attention is focused on something in front of him that is beyond our view. The light catches his hair, making it stand out against the indistinct figures surrounding him. Frank had a way of finding beauty in the ordinary, like Helen Levitt, another photographer who chronicled the street life of children in a similarly poetic way. It’s this feeling of seeing the world anew, through the eyes of someone else, that makes Frank’s work so powerful. It’s like he’s saying, "Hey, look at this. Isn’t it amazing?"