Guggenheim 646A--Boxing match, San Francisco c. 1956

Robert Frank made this contact sheet for "Guggenheim 646A--Boxing match, San Francisco" using film. The different images and views feel like hesitations or stutters. Like Frank was trying to get something right, but what? Look at the surface—the shiny emulsion, the sprocket holes, the film markings, and the way the photos are sequenced. Each one is different from the last. There's so much information here: light and dark, near and far, inside and outside. There's a particular frame with a red square around it, and the figures inside are blurred. This feels significant somehow. Frank is like a jazz musician, riffing on a theme, improvising with light and shadow. Like Garry Winogrand, he takes us out into the world as it is. Ultimately, this piece reminds us that art is a process of inquiry, a way of seeing and thinking.