San Gennaro festival--New York City no number/Black White and Things 23 1951

Robert Frank made this silver gelatin print, San Gennaro festival--New York City, sometime in the mid-twentieth century. The picture is a contact sheet, which is a way of proofing an entire roll of film, and it gives you a sense of Frank's process. The whole thing is a study in contrasts; light and dark, crowd and individual, movement and stillness. The image near the bottom with the red markings is particularly interesting, it's a blurry, almost abstract view of something happening within the festival. These black and white images are like notes on a theme, and, for me, it’s about the rhythm and energy of life. The way Frank captures these fleeting moments, full of grit and humanity, reminds me of Walker Evans. You get the sense that both these guys are just observers, there to see and record, not to judge. It's a conversation about what it means to be human. And that's a conversation worth having, again and again.