Guggenheim 367/Lines of My Hand 61-62--outside Houston, Texas 1955

This is a contact sheet by Robert Frank, a grid of small black and white photographs, outside Houston, Texas. It's kind of like looking over the artist's shoulder as he works, seeing what he chose to shoot and what he left out. There's a red circle drawn on one of the images in the top row, and a blue rectangle on the one below. It gives you a sense of his thinking, like sketching in paint, trying to find the right composition. Look at the surface of the print itself: it is glossy, almost wet looking. There's a materiality to this piece, a feeling of being in the darkroom with Frank as he's making these decisions. It is like a diary, a document of a particular moment in time, but also a reflection on the process of seeing and recording. It reminds me a little of the work of Sol LeWitt in its use of seriality and repetition. It speaks to art being more about questions than answers.