Frank Horvat. Drugstore Entrance New York, 1984

Frank Horvat. Sealed Building, 55th St E New York, 1983.

He was full of years and we need not be too sad. But what an eye he had.

Maybe it’s enough just to remember that he was brilliant, in colour as well, as many people forget. In colour, he was as good as Harry Gruyaert.  As good as Saul Leiter.  Of these, the one that goes into Hodgson’s Choice is the Drugstore Entrance because it’s complicated enough I’d never get bored of it. It’s busy and still, and it makes me think of Sonny Stitt.

And maybe he quite liked yellow. 

All these pictures come from his book SideWalk, published by Hatje Cantz this month (in 2020!  Horvat was born in 1928. )  

Frank Horvat. A Homeless Person in a Yellow Sleeping Bag, Tribeca, New York, 1984.

Frank Horvat. A Yellow Cab in New York, 1985

Frank Horvat. A Little Girl in the Back of a Car, New York, 1985.      Reminds me very much of Helen Levitt’s great Spider Girl, also from New York, but perhaps a few years earlier.  She could do colour, too, come to think of it.