Guggenheim 721--Lincoln, Nebraska 1956

Robert Frank's 'Guggenheim 721--Lincoln, Nebraska' is a photographic contact sheet, and it shows Frank really digging into a subject, circling it, figuring it out. You can see the editing process in the red marks, the way he’s playing with images. It's a little bit like drawing, in that he's considering what the important elements are. What should stay? What should go? I can imagine Frank in the darkroom, hunched over these strips of negatives, making decisions. There’s a real physicality to it—the smell of the chemicals, the careful handling of the film. Thinking about how his aesthetic comes from his own hand is important. I feel kinship with him because as a painter, you know, I deal with the same stuff. He's feeling his way through a scene, trying to find the right angle. Ultimately, artists learn from each other, riffing on ideas, pushing boundaries.