Nixon campaign 26 1960

Robert Frank made this photographic contact sheet, “Nixon campaign 26”, using film and photographic paper. The whole piece is the thing; it’s not about one perfect shot, but the whole process. Looking at the contact sheet as a whole, what strikes me is the texture of the film, those little sprocket holes running along each edge, and the almost scientific record it presents of a day in the life. Each frame is like a little window, a captured moment, but together they tell a larger story, a narrative woven from light and shadow. The frame in the lower left corner is particularly interesting; it’s a crowd of people, a sea of faces, all blurred and indistinct. This relates to the whole in that it asks us to question what is being seen, and by whom. Robert Frank reminds me of Walker Evans, who also sought to document America. Both allow for an acceptance of ambiguity, inviting us to find our own meaning, and constructing our own ways of seeing.