Guggenheim 105/Hoboken 3--New Jersey 1955

This is Robert Frank's “Guggenheim 105/Hoboken 3--New Jersey,” a photographic contact sheet, printed on paper. When I look at this, I’m reminded of those old filmstrips we used to watch in school, each frame a little window into another moment. Frank gives us this layered view, but instead of a neat narrative, we get glimpses, outtakes, and repetitions. The light is flat, the tones gray. I keep coming back to that big number “3” scrawled across the top left, like a graffiti tag. It’s so casual, so direct, and it reminds me of Cy Twombly’s gestural marks, playful and yet decisive. This is Frank’s process, his way of marking time, editing reality. It’s not about perfection, but about the messy, real stuff of life. I think Warhol would've liked this, his own serial images always probing the depths of the everyday.