Hollywood 57 1958

Robert Frank made this photograph called Hollywood 57, presumably in 1957, maybe using a 35mm camera. It shows a strip of film, contact sheet style, something he might have used to decide what to print. I wonder about the red cross and circle; what caught his eye? I feel a kinship with Frank. Photography and painting both capture light, but they do it so differently. Painters build up layers, adding and subtracting until something emerges. But with photography, it's a single moment, a decisive click. He probably felt the pressure, knowing that each shot had to count. I see him in his darkroom, squinting at these frames. He’s looking for something real in all that artifice, probably looking for light and shadow. It makes me think about all the artists who came before, and how we’re all just trying to make sense of the world, one image at a time.