Family--New York City no number 1953

Robert Frank made this photographic contact sheet, "Family--New York City no number," when, like many artists in the mid-20th century, he was trying to find a new way of seeing. The whole sheet is like a collection of little worlds captured in the frame. I can imagine him, wandering around, searching for those moments of raw, unfiltered life. The sequencing is lovely—a kid on a subway, then a kid in a dinghy. Frank might be trying to capture the everyday, but somehow elevates it, right? It feels like he's rummaging through life, looking for those unscripted moments, and almost inventing a new kind of family album. There’s a rough-and-tumble quality, like he's not trying to pretty things up, but rather find the beauty in the unpolished. His work reminds me of other photographer friends in the city at the time, like Helen Levitt and Lisette Model. They all inspire me to keep searching for the unexpected and the genuine.