Guggenheim 109/Hoboken 4--New Jersey 1955

Editor: This is "Guggenheim 109/Hoboken 4--New Jersey," a 1955 contact print by Robert Frank. What strikes me is that the street scenes are captured in sequence, almost like a film strip, highlighting the photographic process itself. What’s your perspective on this choice of presentation? Curator: It's a raw display of photographic labor. The contact print reveals Frank's editorial choices. It emphasizes the selection and sequencing processes inherent in creating a narrative through photographs. This subverts traditional photography as a pristine, singular image. Editor: So it's less about the final photograph and more about revealing the process of *making* the photograph? Curator: Precisely! Consider the materiality – the chemicals, the darkroom, the paper. These strips, laid out like this, move the photograph away from "art" in the traditional sense. It shifts focus to the means of production and invites reflection on the socioeconomic realities influencing both subject and photographer. Editor: The inclusion of the number ‘4’ written largely onto the piece – what does that signal? Curator: The large number disrupts any sense of preciousness surrounding the image. It's about documentation, labor, the relentless process of creating a visual record, a commentary on modern life itself. Frank shows us not just *what* he saw, but *how* he saw. Editor: This has made me rethink the role of the photographer as not just a capturer of images, but an editor and a worker. Thanks! Curator: Indeed, seeing art this way helps to uncover the broader social and economic factors shaping our visual world.