Guggenheim 164/Lines of My Hand 75--Inauguration, Washington, D.C. 1957

Robert Frank made this photographic contact sheet, Guggenheim 164/Lines of My Hand 75--Inauguration, Washington, D.C., with his camera, his eye, and darkroom chemicals. It’s about how artmaking is a process of revealing, like developing film, not just capturing a moment, but stumbling through it. Look at how he layers images, time, and place, all in one frame. There's the inauguration in Washington, but there is also an exhibition at the Guggenheim and the lines on his hand – a kind of personal collage. It’s a dense, visual poem, and the marks and scratches on the film feel intentional, like a painter’s brushstroke. That arrow drawn in red, pointing…where? It’s a clue, or maybe a red herring, a joke? Frank reminds me of Walker Evans, a master of seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. But Frank, man, he digs deeper, into the raw nerve of life. His work embraces the mess, the beautiful, awkward mess of being alive.