11th Street story 4 1951

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, 11th Street story 4, with gelatin silver print. Isn’t it interesting how a contact sheet like this lets us peek behind the curtain of the artistic process? It's like seeing the artist's brain at work, a series of experiments laid out in rows of black and white. I'm drawn to the images framed in red marker, they stand out. The repetition of the images, the slight variations in each frame - it reminds me of the way I approach a canvas, layering and adjusting, always in search of the right balance. It’s like the whole world is right there in that grid, a jumble of urban life, architecture, and maybe even a boat trip! You almost get a sense of movement, a restless energy. Thinking about other artists like Gerhard Richter, who also plays with seriality and repetition in his work, I am reminded how art is always echoing, riffing, and building on what came before. It is an ongoing dialogue.