Beyond the Frame 78/
A creative photography exercise in New York City. Time’s Top 100 Photos of 2025. Plus recommendations for informative and inspiring things to read, see, and hear.
Manhattan Reflections
In last week’s newsletter I wrote about Saul Leiter’s charismatically oblique approach to photographing New York City – the way he managed to dissolve the obvious through steamed-up windows and blurred fragments of colour.
With that poetic sensibility in mind, I returned to the streets of central Manhattan for one afternoon, finding a mirrored, parallel city, hazily reflected in glass and steel.
When the temptation was to photograph the obvious head on, I paused and shifted, seeking reflected balance in store windows and mirrored surfaces.
These images are a small selection from that afternoon walk up and down 3rd Avenue from East 45th Street to East 55th Street and back again.
Like all such exercises, the point is to stretch and strengthen a creative muscle, and in the process, to find new ways of interpreting the familiar.
It’s a privilege to have the luxury of time in New York… in any place, for that matter. The opportunity to walk without the pressure of a deadline, with a familiar camera in hand, pausing to inspect a detail that catches one’s eye, framing, shifting a fraction this way and then the other, searching for the sweet spots, anticipating gestures… it’s in these moments that I find myself closest to the state of flow, described so evocatively by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.
I think of an exercise like this as a way of nudging the boundaries of my comfort zone a little. I’m expanding my understanding of the camera’s mechanics, pushing my capacity to see beyond the obvious, widening my willingness to try a new approach, to fail, to try again.
Whenever we embark upon a creative endeavour which produces something that did not exist in the world when we awoke that morning, that’s a good day.
Time’s Top 100 Photos of 2025
Time magazine’s selection of “Top 100 Photos” is inevitably quite US-centric and includes several images related to immigrants being detained by masked ICE bully boys. Such images have become all too common and understandably prompt comparisons with the authoritarianism of 1930s Germany.
I wonder what a future historian might make of this image collection in 100 years. I’d hazard a guess that they might conclude our world was not an especially happy place in 2025.
I had intended to select three of the more cheerful images to share but, honestly, could only find one that made me smile (Grace Clinton at the Women’s Euros football finals).
So, somewhat reluctantly – but perhaps necessarily – here are three pictures which share a common theme. It’s a very different view of America from the one I enjoyed so much in New York last week.
Unlike the images in Time’s list that show the effects of natural disasters, each of these scenes was entirely manmade and completely avoidable. Whilst I bristle to see them, there’s nothing to be gained from looking away.
Looking forward, wouldn’t it be wonderful to find next year’s Time Top 100 Photos feature an uplifting mix of street parties, summer picnics, inspiring world leaders, and portraits of scientists announcing cancer cures. We live in hope.
When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.
— Robert Frank
Beyond the Frame Recommendations
Articles, documentaries, exhibitions, podcasts and more.
☆ Read
100 Years of New York City through the lens of Nat Geo photographers
National Geographic have shared a small selection of images of New York City, as seen by Nat Geo photographers over the years, including many links to related stories. It’s the opening to a rabbit hole which leads to a maze of intriguing burrows.
◉ Listen
Only Artists - Simon Stephens meets Simon Armitage
(This is my very favourite discovery this week!)
Wash the dishes, hang up the tea towel, put the cat out, pour yourself a cup of Lapsang and settle into an armchair beside a crackling fire, ideally with a Border Collie at your feet.
Now you’re in the ideal state to listen to a cosy conversation between playwright Simon Stephens and British Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.
The meeting is part of a BBC series where artists meet and chat with fellow artists. Each episode is like eavesdropping on an informal conversation between creative people, often from different artistic disciplines, but always with common ground to share.
The gentle Yorkshire brogue of these two highly successful artists slightly disguises the radical approach they each take to their artistic endeavours. Both have important things to say and share a belief in the essential nature of art in troubled times.
“In the context of a world where we are surrounded by noise… over-information, over-communication, 24 hours a day, 360 degrees, when you get one person saying one thing in a considered way, something that they’ve really thought about and taken time to write and rewrite and rethink, and then they present that as a quiet page or a spoken poem, I think that’s vital these days. I think it’s a vital redress to the life we are otherwise living.”
– Simon Armitage
I could not agree more profoundly. Now, when creativity is increasingly viewed as a subversive act by some, artists of any persuasion who are willing to share what’s in their hearts must be protected, nurtured and cherished. Amen!
▶︎ Watch?
The dubious Netflix ‘documentary’ The Stringer is available to stream from Friday 28 November 2025.
The Stringer claims that the famous Napalm Girl photo, made during the Vietnam war in 1972, which has always been attributed to photojournalist Nick Ut, was actually made by a previously unknown AP ‘stringer’ (freelancer), Nguyen Nghe, who has never received credit for the image.
I took a deep dive into the controversy surrounding the film in Beyond the Frame 54/ and included a brief update in Beyond the Frame 55/. I also wrote about Nick Ut’s warm reception at this year’s Visa pour l’Image in Beyond the Frame 71/.
Should you watch the film?
I feel conflicted about recommending The Stringer. The film’s research process was demonstrably flawed and tainted by confirmation bias – and that’s a generous interpretation. However, despite its shortcomings, it’s definitely worth seeing the film, but I would do so in the context of an objective background analysis. I’d recommend reading PetaPixel’s review of the film. It’s safe to ignore the Spoiler warning; there are no surprises.
It’s reasonable to assume that the majority of Netflix viewers who watch will accept the film’s one-sided conclusion and, regrettably, Nick Ut’s reputation will suffer as a result. In my opinion, and in the view of Associated Press, there’s “no reason to believe that anyone other than Nick Ut took the photo”. So it is deeply regrettable that a film with questionable motives will succeed in sullying the reputation of a widely respected photojournalist.
I’ve reached my own conclusion about The Stringer but I’m very interested to know what others think. If you watch the film, please add a comment and share your thoughts and reactions.
❖ See
The Rotlicht Festival – Vienna, Austria
I was pleased to see Andrew Rovenko’s Rocketgirl Chronicles listed amongst the Open Call winners at the Austrian Rotlicht Festival.
The Rotlicht (red light - as in a darkroom safe light) Festival transforms Vienna into a vibrant hub of analogue photography.
The festival is on now and events continue until 30 November. There’s never a bad time to visit Vienna, a city where part of my heart still resides, and this would be an especially good time to go.
✤ Create
A series of creative prompts, inspired by Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, and designed with photographers in mind.
Read more about the concept and learn how to use my Oblique Strategies for Photographers.
And finally…
It was predictably chilly in New York. It’s bloomin’ freezing in Geneva. I’m heading to the heat and humidity of Thailand next week. I figure that if I average out the temperatures across all three locations, I’ll be enjoying a comfortable, shorts and t-shirt time.
Regrettably, it doesn’t work like that. One has to deal with the heat and the cold, the dark and the light, the up, the down, the good, the bad, and the indifferent, and welcome them all with the same cheerful exuberance.
I wish you an abundance of cheerful exuberance this week.
Until next time, go well.
Directory: Beyond the Frame newsletter archive.
Resources: Recommended books, films, gear, media etc.
Beyond the Frame 77/
This edition is unashamedly all about New York City and, specifically, the photographic work of Saul Leiter, often described as “a pioneer of colour photography”.