Allen Ginsberg no number c. 1959

This is Robert Frank’s “Allen Ginsberg no number,” a contact sheet of black and white photographs. Just imagine Frank in his studio, hunched over these strips of images, editing, circling in red wax pencil to mark his selects. You can see the cityscapes he shot, glimpses of people in libraries, and scenes from the subway. It makes you wonder about Frank’s thought process. What was he searching for? What moments caught his eye? The red wax becomes another layer of mark making. They’re like a painter's gestures, emphasizing certain parts and obscuring others. The process of selecting and framing these moments mirrors a painter building up layers on a canvas. Frank, like all artists, was in conversation with others, and I think of Helen Frankenthaler and her staining, how she poured thin washes of color onto canvas, letting the material speak, just like Frank lets his camera speak. Ultimately, it’s about openness, accepting uncertainty, and finding meaning in the process itself.