Parade c. 1945

Robert Frank made this photograph, Parade, using gelatin silver. The greyscale shades are so rich, like he's alchemizing tones as he develops the image. I love the way the flags are cropped, almost like the composition is a kind of forceful, visual editing. The texture of the silver gelatin gives the picture a kind of old-world feeling, yet the immediacy of the subject makes it feel very now. The flags are all blurred, but I think the graininess of the shot makes it look like movement, like the parade is actually in motion. It's like he's showing us a fleeting moment, something real but also slightly out of reach. It’s like life, y’know? Frank reminds me of Walker Evans, who also captured the American scene with this direct but poetic eye. Both of them show that art can be a form of seeing, thinking, and feeling, all rolled into one blurry, beautiful shot.