Paris 64B 1951 - 1952

Robert Frank made "Paris 64B" using gelatin silver and felt tip pen. It’s the kind of piece that makes you think about the artist in his darkroom. It’s a contact sheet, see, a whole matrix of images with red and blue marker scribble all over it. I imagine Frank in his darkroom making marks, editing intuitively through process. He’s considering not just the image but the sequence. It’s about light and dark, surface and texture. There’s even the chance interventions of the developer. The film negative is so interesting as an object. The eye jumps around the image, lingering, searching. It's a kind of painting, if you will. Frank is in conversation with painters, for sure. This piece reminds me that art-making is like a conversation through time. Artists are always building on what’s come before, adding their own voice to the mix. It's all just a big, messy, beautiful experiment, you know?