Guggenheim 438--Los Angeles 1955 - 1956

Robert Frank made this photographic contact sheet called Guggenheim 438--Los Angeles. I look at this, and I think about Frank walking around, camera in hand, looking for something. Here, he has presented us with a collection of moments, possibilities, and attempts. The images bump into each other, creating a rhythm, a pulse. There are people in suits, gathered in groups, maybe talking deals, maybe just talking. And then houses, and then kids, and a strange, maybe staged scene with mannequins. You get the sense that he is looking, looking, looking, and questioning. He invites us into his process—the trial, the error, the intuition. What was he thinking when he took those shots? What was he hoping to find? And maybe, what did he find? It’s all a sort of beautiful searching, this thing of being an artist. It is not about answers, but about the questions we keep asking. And Frank keeps the questions coming.