Bullfight--Spain 7 1952

Editor: This is Robert Frank's "Bullfight—Spain 7," a gelatin-silver print from 1952. It seems to be a contact sheet of various frames shot on location... there’s an almost brutal realism, a far cry from the pomp one usually associates with bullfighting. It feels grainy, immediate, and a bit unnerving. What strikes you about it? Curator: That 'unnerving' quality is spot on, I think! Frank wasn't interested in romanticizing. To me, this contact sheet offers a peek behind the curtain. The chosen images present death, its preparation, its performance—rather coldly observed. We're seeing work... death as a job. It’s honest, maybe too honest. Does it challenge your perceptions of Spanish culture? Editor: Absolutely! It’s definitely at odds with the more glorified depictions. So, you are saying Frank subverts our expectation of this traditional practice through what could appear like its commodification? Is that it? Curator: Precisely! Look at the way he presents the bullring's entrails as simply more cuts of beef. Also, the series of blurred bodies, hovering above the dead. It all emphasizes an industrial, uncaring process rather than spectacle. Does his visual storytelling influence how you feel about documentary photography? Editor: I'd never considered it like that before. It highlights the photographer's hand, their subjective choice of what to show – or not to show. Documentary photography becomes a form of, perhaps subconscious, storytelling itself. Thank you for offering your point of view! Curator: My pleasure! Photography freezes time, yes, but Frank shows us time's more troubling secrets. It’s an unforgettable document of one’s experience within the human, or perhaps, inhumane.