Denver, Colorado--Nixon campaign 7 1960

Editor: This gelatin-silver print by Robert Frank, titled "Denver, Colorado--Nixon campaign 7" and taken in 1960, is fascinating. It's essentially a contact sheet, raw and unedited. I find it very unsettling and disconnected... a sequence of campaign dinners and street scenes. What's your take on it? Curator: I see layers of meaning embedded in this seemingly straightforward contact sheet. It operates as a kind of visual poem about the American political landscape. Consider the choice of presenting the images as a sequence: what cultural associations do film strips hold for us? Think of propaganda reels, newsreels, or even home movies – ways we build personal and shared memory. Editor: That makes sense. Seeing all these frames together… It’s like a fragmented memory. But what about the specific content of the images themselves? Curator: The juxtaposition of staged indoor scenes with the stark reality of the city streets is powerful. The Nixon campaign events, captured with what appears to be a deliberate flatness, feel staged and artificial. Then contrast those interiors with the candid, sometimes chaotic energy of the street scenes; this contrast raises interesting questions about authenticity, performance, and the political theater. Editor: So, you’re suggesting the film strip is working almost like a piece of evidence, but of what, exactly? The fractured state of politics? Curator: Perhaps. Frank's work is celebrated, especially this work, as a commentary on American society. He’s presenting these visual fragments and allowing us to draw our conclusions. It makes me wonder what specific stories Frank wanted us to piece together, from the darkroom to now. Editor: This gives me so much to think about; how Frank used this medium, this specific printing technique, to challenge and unsettle the viewer's assumptions. I really appreciate your thoughts on this.