Lower East Side Restaurant, New York City 1946

This black and white photograph, taken by Godfrey Frankel, shows the window of a Lower East Side restaurant, probably sometime in the middle of the last century. Just imagine the artist finding the scene, and then trying to capture this ephemeral moment. I can imagine Frankel seeing something in this grimy, everyday scene. The window is filled with handwritten lettering, listing the daily specials in white paint against the dark glass. The lettering is uneven, imperfect, but full of character. And then there’s the ghost of the city reflected in the window, layering another dimension onto the scene. It creates a sense of depth and complexity and reminds me of the superimposition of images in Robert Rauschenberg’s silkscreen paintings. This photograph is about capturing a specific moment in time, the feeling of a particular place. It’s a very humble image, but its texture and the layering of information makes it so powerful. Like all good art, Frankel’s photograph makes you look, and then look again.