Convention 11 1956

This is a contact sheet by Robert Frank, using photography. All those little images! It’s such a diaristic form, isn’t it? A way of cataloging, remembering, sorting through experience, and thinking about the moment. There’s something very painterly about this work, even though it’s photographic. The grain is rough and textured, and gives a physical quality to the image. Light and shadow give drama to the scenes, like Caravaggio or Goya. Look at how the areas of high contrast create a push and pull effect, making the images almost vibrate. Then, the repetition, the grid layout creates this fascinating rhythm. These tiny images are like moments plucked from a larger narrative, a kind of film strip of experience, an almost cinematic collage. It reminds me a little of Gerhard Richter’s Atlas project, a vast collection of photographs that he used as source material for his paintings. Both artists are interested in the way images shape our perception of the world, and both embrace the ambiguity of the image.