Venice, Italy 10 1964

Robert Frank made this black and white photograph, "Venice, Italy 10," sometime in his lifetime using photographic film. It's a contact sheet, a whole roll of film printed as one image, so you can see the artist’s mind at work as he made the exposures, the way one image bleeds into the next. I love the way he’s gone back in with a red pen and circled certain moments; it’s like he’s saying, “Pay attention to this.” I find myself drawn to the blurry lights surrounded by the red pen. This one exposure seems to capture the feeling of being in Venice at night, the crowds, the sense of excitement, and of course, the light. I think about Garry Winogrand a lot when looking at Frank’s photographs, and how both artists captured life as it was happening right in front of them, without staging or artifice, with all of its inherent messiness and beauty. Ultimately this image is all about Frank's process, his way of seeing and experiencing the world.