Guggenheim 658--San Francisco c. 1956

Robert Frank made 'Guggenheim 658--San Francisco' sometime around 1956, using gelatin silver print on paper. It reminds me of the underbelly of things; the unseen bits in between what we want to remember. I can imagine him wandering around San Francisco, his camera a companion, trying to catch a glimpse of everyday life. There's a rawness to these frames—a sense of being right there, in the moment, as Frank snapped the shutter. Looking at these frames lined up, I think about film—a physical thing, a medium, an index. It’s like a painter thinking through a problem, wiping away, redrawing, layering ideas until something emerges. In this work, it feels like Frank's asking, how do we see, really see, the world around us? It's like he is saying "Slow down, pay attention, there's something here, if we just look close enough."