Women for "Vogue"--rejects 22 1952 - 1953

Robert Frank’s rejected contact sheet for Vogue feels like a painter’s underpainting. The series of black and white photographs present a kind of visual archaeology, a sequence of images that have been reviewed, considered, and ultimately set aside. I wonder about the kind of looking that Frank was doing while making these images. Was he trying to capture something elusive, or create something new? It is interesting that he would keep this evidence of the photographic process, which feels deeply personal and intuitive. Frank’s work is often about capturing fleeting moments and everyday scenes, like trying to make sense of the world through fragments. The very act of selecting and rejecting, of deciding what to keep and what to discard, becomes a form of creative expression in itself. I think about how, as artists, we all build on each other's work and influence each other’s practices through constant exchange.