Guggenheim 461--"Helen of Troy" premiere, Hollywood 1956

This is Robert Frank's "Guggenheim 461--'Helen of Troy' premiere, Hollywood," a photo of a 35mm film contact sheet. I can almost feel Frank wrestling with that camera, the kind they don't make anymore, out on the streets of Hollywood! I wonder what it was like for Frank to be there, looking through the viewfinder as those cars pulled up, probably thinking about the spectacle, and what it all meant. The red marks over the images kind of resemble the hand of the artist reaching into the image, touching it and making choices. He reminds me of Weegee, another street photographer. The silver gelatin has a kind of glow—or maybe that's the Hollywood glare. What Frank is doing here—he's showing us the raw, unedited truth. It's a process of seeing, and a peek into how the artist finds his way. And in the end, artists are always riffing off each other, stealing ideas, keeping the conversation going. We all just add our voice, our own vision, to the mix.