Trip south--Seville and Malaga, Spain 1/Black, White and Things 24 1952

This is Robert Frank’s ‘Trip South--Seville and Malaga, Spain 1/Black, White and Things 24’, the date is unknown, but he made it using photographic film. Frank was very interested in the nature of materials, how their qualities might be used to reveal a gritty vision of the world. Here, the film’s surface seems to emphasize chance and accident, revealing images of everyday life. Look closely, and you’ll notice his emphasis on the materiality of the filmstrip: the sprocket holes at the top and bottom. By allowing these usually discarded parts to be seen, Frank draws our attention to the labor involved in the photographic process, and the inherent qualities of this medium. The dark areas, and those marked with a red pen, only highlight his artistic selection of what to discard and what to keep. The whole thing is raw, like a work in progress. Frank, with the eye of someone interested in street photography, challenges traditional distinctions between fine art and craft by making his way of seeing and making the subject of the work itself.