Guggenheim 706--Rodeo, Casper, Wyoming 1956

This is Robert Frank's "Guggenheim 706--Rodeo, Casper, Wyoming," a photo contact sheet, a record of a photographic process, all those frames of negatives, like a painter’s sketches on one canvas. The grainy black and white has a certain starkness, a realness. Look how the images are sequenced; rodeo scenes mixed with portraits and what looks like a celebration. Notice that one frame is marked in red pen, like an edit or a note. Frank’s eye is quick, intuitive; he wasn’t interested in making perfect pictures. He was more interested in the feeling, the mood. Frank’s work reminds me a bit of Walker Evans, but with a much rougher, punk rock edge. Both artists captured America, but Frank ripped it open, exposed the raw nerve. It's a document, yes, but also a kind of subjective poem, full of its own imperfect, beautiful vision.