Guggenheim 390--Gallup, New Mexico 1955

Curator: "Guggenheim 390--Gallup, New Mexico" by Robert Frank. Shot in 1955 using film. It is a Gelatin-silver print. Editor: At first glance, this seems to be an arrangement of sequential photographs. There are multiple shots, candid slices of small-town American life... very slice-of-life! As a set of works within one physical piece, how can you interpret these photos in conjunction? Curator: The presentation is indeed part of its construction. Frank offers here a glimpse into a certain experience by dividing moments from that era into singular frames. The black border calls into question which specific moment of light the observer chooses to view. It offers one of many, calling the selection process to attention. Editor: This is intriguing. So you suggest Frank intentionally fragments time. How do you see realism in its composition then, with time sliced up in this way? Curator: The reality is not lost or fractured by the dark film strip border, but, on the contrary, the emphasis brought to each photograph amplifies the gaze one is intended to bring towards it. There is a heavy grain in each photograph too; these formal attributes are intentional to produce a certain image to which his other photographic images contrast. The image as a collective must speak for itself. Is it not the role of the artist to select that which will ultimately comprise its overall composition? Editor: That's interesting, the way you point out how each snapshot functions to construct its whole meaning, even down to the intentional heavy grain. What is revealed to the viewer by dissecting the parts within the context of one whole? Curator: Perhaps this format provides another look into that time period, into each still. He directs the flow in its formalistic approach; and Frank may lead the observer down various aesthetic or critical routes that would reveal even more cultural signifiers of the subject. Editor: I see now. Thank you. Looking at it again, I appreciate the nuanced relationships of the parts. Curator: As do I. Each viewing lends itself to new considerations, no?