From the bus 9A 1958

Robert Frank made this series of black and white photographs on film, probably around the mid-20th century. You can imagine him riding the 9A bus, or maybe just walking around the city, with his camera, looking for something to catch his eye. I wonder what it was like to make this work? I like to imagine him in the darkroom looking at these strips of images, the city life almost like a memory. There are people walking, cars on the street, the architecture of the city, and the light feels very alive. They feel like stolen moments, fleeting and quick. It’s funny to see the markings on the film itself. Maybe it's Frank drawing connections between the frames, who knows? It reminds me that it's not just the image itself that's important, but the whole process, the looking, the framing, the developing, the editing… the thinking. It’s a reminder that art making can be a conversation across time and place, and, like looking at this work, also becomes a conversation with yourself.