Guggenheim 696/Americans 7--Butte, Montana 1956

This is Robert Frank's photographic work, Guggenheim 696/Americans 7--Butte, Montana, made during the height of his career. What grabs me first is the raw, almost brutal honesty of the contact sheet; it's like seeing the artist's brain at work. The high contrast, the grainy texture, it's all there, laid bare. You can see the choices he made, the moments he zeroed in on, and those he discarded. Each frame is a little world, some overexposed, others underexposed, but all pulsating with life. Take the frames in the lower half, they give the sense of people in transit, moving to and fro in rooms. It reminds me of the work of Garry Winogrand, but even more fragmented. It is like he wanted to embrace a sense of imperfection. It shows that art is not about the perfect image, but about the process of seeing, feeling, and trying to capture a fleeting moment.