From the bus 38B/Lines of My Hand 76 1958

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print, called "From the bus 38B/Lines of My Hand 76", from a strip of film. The sequential images have that grainy, high-contrast look he's known for. I love how Frank isn't trying to hide the mechanics of his medium. Looking at this contact sheet, you can almost feel the artist's hand at work, selecting, cropping, and arranging the images. The film strip itself becomes part of the composition, like a painter using the canvas edge. The cityscapes are melancholic and the red and green markings over some of the frames feel spontaneous. I see a connection here to artists like Gerhard Richter, who also blurred the lines between photography and painting. Frank and Richter both see art as a way to capture fleeting moments and question the very nature of representation. This piece reminds me that art isn’t about perfect images, it’s about the messy, beautiful process of seeing.