Mary and Andrea at 8 months I 1954

Robert Frank assembled this photographic work, Mary and Andrea at 8 months I, from strips of black and white 35mm film. He wasn't trying to hide his working, but reveling in it. The edges are rough, a torn-off tab is visible, and the film strips are slapped down with tape. I love that the individual frames offer a sequence, like a comic strip, or a storyboard for a film that never got made. You can sense the artist circling his subject matter, capturing these images from slightly different angles. It's like, what is more intimate than a mother and child? And yet the black and white aesthetic, and this very particular form of collage, allows the viewer to keep a certain distance. It's never too sentimental. Frank lets the material speak for itself and embraces the ambiguity, allowing us to bring our own feelings to the viewing. Like the films of Cassavetes, his contemporary, this work is rough, full of feeling, and deeply humane.