Embarkation--New York City IV 1955

Robert Frank made this photographic work, Embarkation—New York City IV, with film. The photos are sequenced like a storyboard, a kind of visual poem. I love seeing the frames lined up like this; it reveals the artist's process. Photography isn’t just about snapping a picture, it’s a method of seeing. Look at the grainy texture, the stark contrast between light and shadow. Each frame is a little world, capturing fleeting moments of waiting. Figures huddle, embark, say goodbye. There's a beautiful shot on the fifth row, second from the left. The image is out of focus, hazy, and abstract. It’s a kind of meditation on movement, on the ambiguity of departures. Frank’s work reminds me a little of Garry Winogrand, another street photographer obsessed with the flux of urban life. Both found beauty in the everyday, in the rough edges of reality. And isn't it interesting how art can do that, transform the mundane into something meaningful, something beautiful?