New York City 7 1957 - 1958

This is Robert Frank’s ‘New York City 7’ from who knows when, maybe the ‘50s, made with a camera and film. The image shows multiple strips of film. I think of the darkroom as the artist's studio, and the chemicals and enlarger as brushes and paint. The artist has circled one of the frames, indicating a kind of emphasis. Was that the chosen image? Or was the circle a way to edit it out? I like the way the film strip itself becomes like a kind of storyboard. There’s an off-the-cuff quality here, like the artist is saying that every moment of our lives is just a succession of images, some chosen, and most discarded. It’s a fascinating, raw vision of urban life, full of spontaneity, like the artist is thinking out loud, trying to capture something true about the world. To me, this piece feels like an intimate conversation between the artist, the city, and us, the viewers.