Andrea in Bridgehampton, New York no number 1955

This is Robert Frank’s celluloid strip of Andrea in Bridgehampton, New York, like a sheet of memory. I wonder what it's like to be so good at seeing that you make a whole genre? Robert Frank was a master of the decisive moment, but here it's more like a stuttering one. It's all about temporality: one little girl, a garden table, a vase of flowers. Each frame a slight variation, a blink of an eye. The whole thing is a bit like film editing, but there's something so personal and diaristic about it. In each frame, Andrea is caught in the act of being a child, and Frank is there, bearing witness. It's as if he's saying, "This is what it looks like to be alive." It's a very painterly way to think about photography. Frank’s work always reminds me to stay curious, to keep looking, and to find the beauty in the everyday.