Hollywood 56 1958

In this black and white photograph, Robert Frank shares with us, not a finished print, but a frame from a roll of film, made in Hollywood. Frank, like so many painters I admire, revels in the accidental, turning mistakes into new opportunities. Look at the contact sheet itself, the way it shows the process, the testing, the circling of a frame to indicate, ‘this one!’ It’s a method of inquiry, a conversation with oneself. I imagine Frank, squinting, as he seeks a kind of truth. His choices feel intuitive, as if he’s saying, “Okay, universe, what are you telling me here?” The red marks around the chosen photographs reminds me of a painter’s under drawing, but in this case, it opens up the editing process to interpretation. It's interesting to think about this piece as the beginning of a project as the selected frames are clues, evidence of what is to come. As artists, we’re all in this ongoing conversation, riffing off one another, trying to make sense of the world, one frame, or one painting, at a time.