Mary in park--New York City no number 1954

This is Robert Frank’s photo, "Mary in park—New York City", and it looks like one of his characteristic film contact sheets. It’s a reminder that so much of photography is a process, like any art form. Here, Frank gives us a whole series of images, like a storyboard, rather than one perfect shot. In the second row you can see Mary, the subject of the piece. She's captured at slightly different angles; the light changes, her expression shifts. There's this gorgeous texture in the way the film renders the scene. It makes you feel as though you are there with Mary. The contact sheet gives us access to Frank’s way of seeing, his methodology, his choices. In a way, it's like looking at a painter's sketchbook, where the process is as important as the finished work, not dissimilar to the earlier experiments of someone like Muybridge, who was also invested in revealing the nuts and bolts of image making. It’s the raw, unedited feel of Frank’s work that makes it so alive.