New York City 4 c. 1961

Robert Frank captured "New York City 4" with his camera, using black and white film to present us with a vision of the city. The film strip format offers a sequence, a journey, of how Frank saw New York. Look at the way the light falls, cutting across faces, windows, buildings. It's this contrast, this starkness, that defines the emotional landscape here. The texture of the film itself adds another layer; you can almost feel the grit, the graininess of the city. It's a tactile experience, even though it's just an image. Take the central panels, where figures are caught in a moment of stillness. Are they waiting, watching, or simply existing? It's this ambiguity that makes Frank's work so compelling. Frank's approach echoes that of Walker Evans, another photographer who found poetry in the everyday, although there's something rawer, more immediate in Frank’s work. It's a reminder that art doesn't always offer easy answers, but rather invites us to ask questions, to feel, and to see the world in new ways.