Mary Pickford at home--Hollywood 80 1958

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print called 'Mary Pickford at home--Hollywood 80' without a specific date. It's like he’s saying, "Here's a process, not a perfect image." The contact sheet gives you the whole story – the good, the bad, and the outtakes. It’s less about the flawless shot and more about the act of seeing. It's about documenting and arranging them to see what emerges. I find my eyes drawn to the center of the sheet, where a frame is marked with red. Frank lays bare the mechanics, and I think that's brave. It's as though he's revealing his thought process. There's this honesty about it; nothing's hidden. Seeing the edges of the film, the frame numbers, the handwritten notes, it reminds me of what I try to achieve in my own work. Frank’s work reminds me of Gerhard Richter's photo paintings – that sense of layering, of images built upon images, creating something new from the old. Art is an ongoing conversation, constantly responding and reinterpreting.