Dog show 6 1960

Robert Frank created this photographic work, Dog Show 6, using gelatin silver print. It presents the contact sheet, rather than a 'finished' image, a working document, where the image-making process is laid bare. The textural elements, the blacks and the whites, the sprockets on the film and the numbers, are all part of the image. The image is not separate from its means of production. What are we looking at here? It's not a single perfect image, but the many almost-right moments that constitute the photographic process. I’m drawn to the third row, where we see the relationship between dog and owner. The way that the owner looks at the dog, the adjustment to the fur, the pride and love that are on show. It reminds me of the work of Lisette Model. Like her, Frank is interested in the beauty of real life and he isn't afraid to show the gritty truth. We see an image in its becoming. It opens up a space where meaning is not fixed.