Guggenheim 12--funeral, Carolinas 1955

Robert Frank made "Guggenheim 12--funeral, Carolinas" as a series of photographs on film. It seems that Frank wasn’t afraid to show you his workings. He presents the film strip, the source, the stuff that would usually get discarded. The image feels raw, and real. The graininess emphasizes the physicality of the medium, reminding us of the chemical processes involved in capturing these moments. The red outline around one of the frames feels like a defiant mark, like a painter might do. It draws our eye, but also hints at the artist's hand in the process of selection and interpretation. This particular frame features a car, a symbol of American life that reappears throughout Frank’s work. Frank is a great reference point for artists using photography today because he embraced imperfection, chance, and the beauty of the everyday. Like Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus, Frank found poetry in the mundane.