Central casting--Hollywood 67 1958

This is Robert Frank’s "Central Casting--Hollywood 67," a contact sheet made in 1967, a series of moments strung together, filmically. Frank’s images always feel like they’re on the verge of falling apart. Here, the texture of the film, the grain, and the stark contrast create a palpable tension. Look at how he captures these figures in the casting room. The harsh light exposes every detail, every flaw. You can almost feel the anxiety in the room, the desperate hope of these hopefuls. The red marker slashes across some of the frames, marking what didn’t work, what was rejected, and it brings to mind a similar gesture in painting, like a pentimento, where you can see the artist's earlier ideas beneath the surface. It reminds me that art is about embracing the messy, the imperfect, the accidental. Like the work of Garry Winogrand, Frank's contemporary, he was able to find beauty in the everyday and the overlooked.