Control booth, NBC TV studio--Burbank, California c. 1955 - 1956

Robert Frank made this silver gelatin print, "Control booth, NBC TV studio--Burbank, California," and what strikes me is the way he's not afraid to dive into the grit, the raw process of image-making itself. It's all in the surfaces here, the way the light catches on the metal and glass of those archaic TV screens and control panels. Look at how Frank coaxes out the tones, from the deep blacks to the ghostly grays, almost like he's painting with light. There's a whole history embedded in the darkroom process, each print a unique trace of time and labor. The screens show a ghostly cross hair or an inverted landscape, a visual static hum that makes me feel like I’m peering into some forgotten corner of the media machine. Frank has always been a bit of a punk, and reminds me of Lisette Model with his bold, grainy, un-retouched prints. He’s inviting us to see not just the picture, but the guts of how pictures are made, and how they control what we see. Art's not about perfection, it's about being honest.