Allen Ginsberg no number 1963

Robert Frank made this contact sheet of Allen Ginsberg using gelatin silver print. I like how Frank isn’t precious about the image; he keeps the whole roll, complete with its sprocket holes. Like a painter leaving the drips, or collage with messy edges. It's process! Look at the faces in those little frames! The texture is grainy, raw, immediate, almost as if you could reach out and touch the scene, and feel the emotions etched into those faces. There's a rhythm to the ordering of the contact sheet, like individual frames of a film or panels in a comic strip. This reminds me of work by Lisette Model, who also captured raw, gritty slices of life. Like Frank's photos, they reflect the world's imperfections, inviting us to embrace the beauty of the real. Art isn't about perfect representation; it's about the messy, beautiful truth.