Family 4 c. 1960 - 1961

This is a photographic work by Robert Frank, whose dates were 1924 to 2019, titled 'Family 4'. I think about how the act of photographing must have felt to Frank, the way he seems to be almost tumbling, or rather, driving through life. It seems he is asking what it means to see, to record, to remember. He does this by using the film itself, the very material, and the way that families perform themselves. The orange marks feel important to me—they feel almost like directions, and perhaps this is Frank’s way of thinking through what these photographs mean in a wider context. I see something of the street photographs by Garry Winogrand, and Lisette Model, but, this piece also relates to Frank’s practice more widely, as he uses the medium as an opportunity to question seeing itself. It’s like we are all in this thing together, and he shows it to us.