Guggenheim 421--Los Angeles 1955 - 1956

Robert Frank made “Guggenheim 421—Los Angeles” using gelatin silver print at some point in his life. Here is the artist in conversation with himself, I think. Did he take these pictures on a road trip? He's mapping out a story, and he’s really making a film on a single page. I imagine him holding his camera to his eye as he's driving through Los Angeles, trying to figure out what's what. What I like about this is the way he is almost sketching with his camera. I see this work as akin to Gerhard Richter's "48 Portraits" or Warhol’s repetitive images. It’s that idea that if you take an image and repeat it, then you can see something about the world, and the idea, with greater clarity. Frank is in the editing room here, as he is on the street, trying to find out what LA is. What he found is still up for grabs.