Wellfleet no number 1954

This is Robert Frank’s ‘Wellfleet no number’, a black and white photograph. I love that it shows a whole roll of film, like a painter leaving their process visible. It feels like we are looking at someone’s memories, or a collection of thoughts, a little like browsing through a sketchbook. The contact sheet is all about texture and surface. The graininess of the film, the way the light catches the edges of each frame. In some of the frames, the images are sharp, you can see people, interiors, landscapes. In others, the images are blurry or overexposed, close to abstraction. The whole thing feels very intimate, like a secret shared between the photographer and the viewer. It reminds me a bit of some of the work of another photographer, Nan Goldin, who was also interested in capturing everyday life with a raw and personal edge. It makes you think about how photography, like painting, can be a way of seeing, feeling, and remembering the world. It’s not about perfection, it’s about capturing a moment, a feeling, a mood.