Lines of My Hand 16/Miles Forst Shoes at Crosby Street--New York City no number 1950

Robert Frank created this gelatin silver print, a contact sheet, at an unknown date in New York City. Isn't it amazing how a seemingly straightforward medium like photography can become a portal into someone’s mind? I see Frank wandering around his Crosby Street haunt, maybe a bit restless, definitely observant. The contact sheet is almost like a sketchbook page, with a series of shots capturing ordinary moments. There’s a vulnerability here, a sense of searching. I can imagine him thinking about other photographers who have played with the sequencing and display of images like this, and I think of how a great photographer like Frank thinks about the world. Ultimately I think Frank is inviting us to see the world with a fresh pair of eyes.