40 Fotos, page 1 1946

This is the first page of "40 Fotos," by Robert Frank, and it's... blank. It's just a pale, off-white page, with Frank’s signature scrawled in the lower left. It’s like he's handing us the keys to his process. There's a bit of discoloration, maybe a stray mark, and the impression of age on the surface of the paper. The texture is almost palpable, and the whole page has a history etched into it. It's a humble start to a collection of photographs, almost disarming in its simplicity. I love the raw honesty of this blank page. It invites us to consider what we bring to the act of looking. It’s like a painter’s primed canvas, full of potential. Think about someone like Agnes Martin, and the way she invites us to meditate on the subtle and quiet. Similarly, Frank uses this blank page to ask us: what do you see when there's ostensibly nothing to see? What expectations do we bring? It’s a challenge, an invitation, and a reminder that art is as much about seeing as it is about feeling.