(explore, Sep 4, 2011)
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flickriver
What can you really tell from 1/2000 of a second? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I was looking at the contact sheets of Robert Frank's "The Americans" and noticed some crops that had been done to emphasize or dramatize some of the juxtapositions that he wanted to make in the book. I'm particularly thinking of plate 11 with the bored, privileged boys in the car. When I viewed that image for the first time, the strength of the image stuck me. Then I started to think about why those boys would be in that car alone. I couldn't answer the question. When you see the image full frame and notice they are at a car show, the image makes a lot more sense. The crop is genius but it also serves his purpose well.
Things are never as they seem and while a picture tells a thousand words, the next second (or things just out of the frame) might tell a different thousand words.