Guggenheim 623A--San Francisco c. 1956

This photographic contact sheet, Guggenheim 623A--San Francisco, was produced by Robert Frank sometime in the mid twentieth century. Frank's approach to photography feels loose, instinctive, like he’s grabbing moments as they unfold. What strikes me is how the whole sheet becomes a single image, a study in sequencing and editing. The grainy, high-contrast black and white images, some framed in red, show us Frank's selection process, making the invisible visible. The materiality here is crucial; the filmstrip edges, the sprocket holes, the way the images butt up against each other. It all speaks to the physical act of image-making. Look at the section with the crowd of people, how he’s working the composition, trying to find the right balance. It’s like a painter doing studies, searching for the perfect mark. You can see Frank wrestling with the world, and that's what makes it so alive. For me, Frank is in conversation with photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, who were also trying to capture the decisive moment, but Frank brings a rawness, a kind of beautiful imperfection. Ultimately, the meaning is up to us.