Highway 40, Delaware--Lines of My Hand 94/Florida 9 1958

Robert Frank's "Highway 40, Delaware--Lines of My Hand 94/Florida 9" is a photographic contact sheet, a kind of sketchpad made by the artist. Here, Frank isn't hiding the process, but laying it bare. The red marker slashes and blue-penned squares feel like a painter’s underdrawing, a guide to something larger. What I love about this sheet is how the texture of the film itself becomes part of the image. You can almost smell the darkroom chemicals. Look at the row of images of what looks like a diner interior. The changing light through the window, the repetition of chairs - this becomes a kind of rhythm, almost musical. Frank reminds me a little of Walker Evans, another master of American photography. But where Evans is cool and detached, Frank is raw and deeply personal. Like all great art, Frank’s work embraces ambiguity and invites us to see the world in new ways.