Guggenheim 661--Sacramento and Orinda, California c. 1956

Robert Frank made this photographic contact sheet in Sacramento and Orinda, California. It's a kind of diary, an archive, a finding, but it's not a traditional photograph. Instead, it's a sequence, like a memory reel of different moments. I think Frank was trying to capture a feeling, something about the way people live, their homes, their routines, all in this rough and unvarnished way. The orange marker circles look like Frank’s way of cropping the image, or emphasizing a face. He is saying “look at this”. Photography and painting have a similar approach. I use photography to see what to paint and what to remember, to show an everyday feeling or a quiet moment.