Carnival--Basel no number 1952

This is Robert Frank's “Carnival--Basel no number,” a series of black and white photographs printed on strips of film. The way Frank works with light and shadow here is like sketching with a camera. He grabs moments, not aiming for perfect clarity, but embracing the grain and blur, the raw feel of real life unfolding. What strikes me is the physical quality of the film itself. You can see the sprockets, the little perforations that guide it through the camera. It’s a reminder that photography is not just about capturing an image, but about a physical process, a dance between light, chemicals, and time. Look at how he isolates moments with a red pen, these moments jump out like thoughts we keep coming back to. Frank reminds me of artists like Cy Twombly, who scribble and scratch, embracing imperfection as a way to get closer to the truth. Art is a messy, ongoing conversation, never quite finished.