Guggenheim 385--Gallup, New Mexico 1955

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, Guggenheim 385--Gallup, New Mexico, sometime during his career; it's a photographic print showing different strips of film, a window into his process. You can see the red grease pencil marks where he's circled specific frames. Imagine him going through roll after roll, picking out the images he wants to enlarge. I think of the work of sifting through images as part of the artistic process. Think of the darkroom, the smell of the chemicals, the quiet focus. I like the way you can see the unedited filmstrip alongside the marked selections, the images that didn't quite make the cut. It’s so human, and it reminds us that even the greatest artists are just making choices, and in those choices is the art. It's like the way we learn from each other as artists, through a conversation across time.