Die Landwirtschaft (Farming) 13-16 1942 - 1946

Robert Frank made this composite sheet of photographs, titled 'Die Landwirtschaft (Farming) 13-16,' presumably sometime before his death in 2019. Look at the arrangement of these smaller images on the larger page. It is like a puzzle, and you can see Frank's mind at work. The deep blacks and soft grays in the photographs create a strong contrast. You can sense the weight and texture of the hay bales and the freshly tilled earth. The print quality is beautiful, especially around the edges of the black film, and you can see where he has been playing with light and shadow to shape the landscape. It feels both natural and deliberate. Each image captures a different view of the farming process. They feel somehow incomplete on their own, but, together, the photos create a larger narrative about agriculture. Think of the stark beauty in the landscapes of someone like Charles Burchfield. There's a similar sense of finding something profound in the everyday. Ultimately, Frank's work reminds us that there's always more than one way to see the world, and art helps us explore those possibilities.