Winter--New York City II 1953 - 1954

Robert Frank created this contact sheet from a roll of 35mm film, the basic ingredient of which is celluloid, a plastic material derived from cellulose. This unassuming roll is an object that democratized photography. Its relatively low cost and ease of use allowed a new wave of photographers to capture the world from their own perspective. Frank was one of them. His method was simply to shoot, shoot, shoot; amassing a huge archive of images with his trusty Leica camera. The contact sheet is a direct record of that process, a matrix of possible images. Here, it represents a day of shooting in New York City. The high contrast and grainy texture are marks of his hands-on darkroom technique. For Frank, photography was not a high-art pursuit, but a form of personal expression, documenting the human experience. This contact sheet offers a rare glimpse into his method. It reminds us that art is as much about process and labor as it is about the final result.