Elliott Erwitt, on ship--New York to Paris 8 1949

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, *Elliott Erwitt, on ship—New York to Paris 8*, sometime in the middle of the 20th century. You see this entire matrix of images, this sort of photographic decision-making process. I think about the way he made this; methodically arranging, cutting, pasting; it's an intimate encounter with the materiality of the photographic process. I imagine him working in his darkroom, surrounded by the scent of chemicals, developing film. He’s probably looking for something – a moment of clarity, a sense of connection, a distillation of feeling.   And in a way, this reminds me of my own creative process, the endless layering, scraping, and revising, until something unexpected emerges from the chaos of the studio. It's like a visual diary, with each image a fragment of a memory, a feeling, a fleeting encounter.   And that red mark? Who knows? Looks like something between a correction, a doodle, and an assertion. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another's creativity.