Wales 1 1953

Robert Frank made “Wales 1” with gelatin silver print on paper, which is a series of film strips laid out and layered on top of each other. I can imagine Frank, back in the darkroom, fiddling with these strips, trying to piece something together, like a puzzle with no clear solution. There’s a beautiful randomness to it all; moments captured and then reconfigured into something new. The contrast is stark. You’ve got these grainy images, dark and full of shadows, cut through with light. I feel a connection to artists like Frank, who are willing to embrace the messy, the imperfect. What I find so striking about Frank’s work is its casual disregard for conventional beauty. These aren't picture-perfect postcards. They are the raw, unfiltered glimpses of life as it is lived. It’s like he’s saying, hey, look at this, look at all this stuff that usually goes unnoticed. Ultimately, artists are magpies, picking up shiny bits of the world and repurposing them, hoping they resonate and spark something new.