Guggenheim 474/Lines of My Hand 65--Twentieth Century Fox film studio, Burbank, California 1956

This is Robert Frank’s filmstrip, made at Twentieth Century Fox, full of dark tonality, grainy black and white with some red pen markings. I wonder if Robert Frank felt as uncomfortable making these film stills as I sometimes do when I paint. Looking at these frames, you can sense the atmosphere of a film set – the artificiality, the constructedness of it all, and the sense of trying to find something real within that. The red marks feel like Robert Frank’s own kind of painting gesture added after the shot. I feel like he’s trying to break through all that Hollywood artifice, to find something raw and true. I imagine he’s thinking about how to capture a feeling, how to make an image that resonates with his own experience. It's not just about documenting what's there, but about transforming it through his own vision. I imagine him walking the studio floors with his camera, among the actors and technicians and lights, trying to find a moment of truth.