Guggenheim 535--Los Angeles 1955 - 1956

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, Guggenheim 535--Los Angeles, by exposing photographic film to light and chemically processing it. Isn’t it fascinating how the film strip reveals Frank's eye at work? The texture here isn't about paint strokes but the grain of film, the sprockets, and the way light and shadow play. Frank doesn’t hide the process. The edges are rough, and the images vary in exposure. I am drawn to one frame in particular, it has been marked with an orange box. It shows utility poles and wires against a bright sky, a slice of urban infrastructure that’s both mundane and visually arresting. That outlined box makes you ask, why this particular frame? What caught Frank's eye? Thinking about other artists, someone like Jack Pierson comes to mind, another artist who finds beauty in the discarded and overlooked, in the poetics of the everyday. Ultimately, art is about seeing, pointing, and asking questions rather than giving answers.