South America and Spain 9 by Robert Frank

South America and Spain 9 1948

0:00
0:00

Dimensions: sheet: 23.8 x 29.9 cm (9 3/8 x 11 3/4 in.)

Copyright: National Gallery of Art: CC0 1.0

This is ‘South America and Spain 9,’ a photo by Robert Frank. It’s a strip of negatives, a whole roll undeveloped all at once, like a painter choosing to display the underpainting, the normally hidden structure. It feels kind of like a sketchbook page, where you see all the artist’s thoughts, not just the finished idea. The light and shadow play is so stark, creating real drama. It’s the kind of black and white that feels like it has a texture, a grit. There is a section right in the middle where the faces of children rise up from a body of water. You see the same group multiple times in a row, a bit of a stutter, like the artist is thinking out loud about this image. This makes me think of someone like Gerhard Richter, who is also interested in the way that photographic information can be intentionally blurred or smudged, as though the picture-making process is just as important as the final image. The difference is that here Frank leaves it all out for us to see.

Show more

Comments

No comments

Be the first to comment and join the conversation on the ultimate creative platform.