Valencia, Spain 18 1952

Robert Frank's Valencia, Spain 18, is a photographic contact sheet, a kind of artist's notepad. Think of it as a painter's palette, a place to try things out. The images are raw, direct, and full of contrast. Frank is laying bare his process, not hiding it. I love the handwritten marks, the scratched-out frames, the big question mark: it’s like he's thinking out loud. It makes you realize that editing is a creative act in itself. That one frame he's marked with a red box, the one he chose, it has a completely different feel when you see all the outtakes. This piece reminds me of the work of another photographer, Garry Winogrand, who, like Frank, just shot and shot, embracing the chaos and chance encounters of street photography. It's like art is one big conversation, don't you think?