Convention hall—Chicago 1956

Robert Frank's black and white photograph, Convention Hall—Chicago, is this incredible jumble of faces and signs, a real moment of chaos. It’s a photograph, but the graininess and contrast almost give it the feel of a charcoal drawing, where the artist is building up tone and texture from simple gestures. Look at the way the light catches the signs in the background. ‘Harriman Can Win!’ they shout, but the words feel almost claustrophobic, crammed in amongst the faces. The material quality of the photograph is particularly interesting. The texture is grainy and almost grimy, as though Frank is trying to capture not just the image, but the feeling of the event. There’s a really wonderful tension between the individual portraits and the sense of the crowd as a single, overwhelming entity, a contrast also explored by Philip Guston, though in a very different medium. The meaning feels open, still raw, and unresolved, like the photographic process itself.