Italy 8 1964

Here's Robert Frank's photographic contact sheet, Italy 8, made sometime in the mid-20th century. I love these kinds of works; to me, they're like a painter's preparatory sketches – a chance to get inside the artist's head. Frank's method seems so intuitive. Like he just lets the world come to him, a stream of fleeting moments captured on film. I can almost see him walking those Italian streets, his camera a constant companion. The red marks are really interesting; I wonder why he selected those shots? Maybe it's the play of light and shadow, or the way the composition creates a certain mood. They're like clues, inviting us to piece together the story he was trying to tell. I'm reminded of other photographers like Garry Winogrand who were also just trying to find something out about life by taking pictures of it. There's something so open and vulnerable about this approach. It makes you wonder about the nature of seeing and how artists are forever influencing one another's way of looking.