Kite IV 1957 - 1958

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, Kite IV, sometime during his career using black and white film. It’s a cascade of moments, a sequence of stills where light and shadow dance. Look at how each frame captures a sliver of time, bodies caught in silhouette against the sky. I love the way Frank embraces the material of photography. The grain, the scratches, the imperfections – they're all part of the story. He's not trying to hide the process; he's inviting us to see it. The whole sheet reads like a visual poem. It reminds me a bit of the work of Gerhard Richter, in the sense of how both artists explore chance and ambiguity through seriality. Both artists show the image, and its variations. Frank’s work, like Richter’s, embraces the blurry edges and the in-between spaces, inviting us to find our own meanings in the flow.