Fourth of July--Coney Island 5 4 - 1958

Robert Frank made this photographic contact sheet, Fourth of July--Coney Island 5, as a record of his shooting process. It’s a way of seeing what he saw, how he saw it, and how he edited it all down. The texture of the gelatin silver print is matte, which lets you focus on the sequence of images. Look closely at the red marker, used to circle and cross out frames: these marks are so physical, like you could scrape them off. This is the artist making decisions, right here! I keep looking at the cross over the single figure in the frame, lying down on the beach. It reminds me of the work of Sophie Calle, another artist who uses photography to frame narrative. What is the narrative here? What is it to cross something out? It’s like Frank is saying, ‘not this, but that’. A real process, as a permanent record, laid bare.