Family--Wellfleet 10 1962

This is a contact sheet, by Robert Frank, called *Family—Wellfleet 10.* I imagine the act of taking these photos: a decisive moment, here repeated and repeated. It reminds me of my own studio, where I make work, and try to get something right, again and again. I feel sympathetic to Frank's process. I imagine he made this on a beach and then later in his dark room. I wonder if he was thinking about Walker Evans or Cartier-Bresson when he made this work. I think he probably was. The high contrast and graininess adds a certain kind of beauty to the work. It feels so handmade, even though it is a photograph. The dark lines between the frames are like bold strokes of black paint. It shows us how the artist made the work, what he decided to keep and what to discard. He shows us all the outtakes, the errors, the maybes, the possibilities. Like painting, photography is about conversation, each artist builds upon and responds to those who came before, contributing to an ongoing dialogue that stretches across time.