Passage Leolidas--Paris 44A 1949 - 1950

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, Passage Leolidas--Paris 44A, from gelatin silver, and it feels like the kind of thing a painter can relate to. It’s almost like a study sheet. I can imagine Frank walking around Paris, camera in hand, clicking away, maybe not even knowing what he was after. He exposes the film to light and shadow, to people and buildings, and then later in the darkroom, he develops it, sees what he’s got, and makes a print of the whole roll. He’s not precious here; he’s letting us see the outtakes, the almost-but-not-quite moments. It’s this raw, unfiltered look that I find so appealing. The handwritten number 44 scrawled on the top right feels casual, immediate. In a way, it is like a painter throwing paint at a canvas and then stepping back to see what sticks. It’s this process of trial and error, intuition, and chance that makes art so alive.