Peru, page 18 1948

Robert Frank made this photograph in Peru, and it's page 18 of a book. It's a grainy black and white image, with a large blank space to the right, the kind you get from a page torn out of a ring binder. The image is a crowd of people holding onto a rope. Look at the way the rope bisects the image and runs from the bottom left corner to the center, creating a sense of depth and connection, but also of division. The texture of the rope is rough, almost palpable. You can see every twist and fray. The contrast in the photograph is striking. The dark clothes and hair of the people against the stark white of the blank page. The page becomes like a scream. It reminds me a little of Rauschenberg's erased de Kooning drawing, a statement of absence and presence. It's a reminder that art is always a conversation, a response to what came before, and a provocation for what comes next.