Boy Scout camp--Sports c. 1941

This is Robert Frank’s silver gelatin print, “Boy Scout camp--Sports.” It’s a small picture, just a few inches, but it opens up into a whole world. I imagine Frank with his camera, how he must have moved around these boys, trying to get the right angle. It’s not posed. The image catches them in the middle of living, and we come into this with the feeling that the scene is not staged. It feels really immediate. The light is soft, with a subtle range of grays. I keep looking at the boy who is bending over a pot. He’s all awkward angles. He is really present, and it makes me wonder about all the other pictures Frank didn’t take. I think about other photographers who documented everyday life, like Henri Cartier-Bresson, but Frank’s work is more rough and raw around the edges. He’s showing us something real, something that feels true.