Guggenheim 36--Sandusky, Ohio 1955

This photographic work by Robert Frank, "Guggenheim 36--Sandusky, Ohio," captures a series of moments, laid out like a contact sheet, a visual diary. I see Frank, out on the road, wrestling with light and shadow, trying to freeze the fleeting world as it rushes past. Each frame is a tiny little painting, isn't it? Some are blurred, maybe out of focus, but full of energy, like a Gerhard Richter. Then you have those he’s marked with a red pen, like he is cropping with a crayon. I can imagine him thinking so hard about America, life, and the road. And of course, the relationship between photography and painting has always been a back and forth. Painters look at photos, photographers want to make painterly images. It's all a big conversation. We’re all influenced by each other, riffing off ideas, chasing something we can never quite catch, and isn't that the beauty of it all?