Switzerland D 1952

Curator: Robert Frank’s “Switzerland D” from 1952, presented as a gelatin-silver print, is certainly striking. Editor: It’s a collection of images from a roll of film, almost like a contact sheet presented as the final work. There’s a rawness to the process on display, and it feels very intimate, even voyeuristic. What does this image say to you? Curator: The direct display of the film roll, complete with its markings and sprocket holes, disrupts the traditional notion of the pristine photographic print. Frank isn't hiding the means of production. He's revealing it, asking us to consider the labour and process involved. The materials, the emulsion on the film, the silver in the print—these are the very foundation of the work’s meaning. Editor: I see what you mean. Presenting the contact sheet challenges the idea of the 'decisive moment,' because he is asking us to consider all these moments. Curator: Exactly! It moves beyond aesthetics to highlight the material reality of image making. Consider the social context as well: postwar consumerism was taking hold. What's the role of photography, of images, in shaping desire and consumption during that era? It questions the authority and objectivity that photography often claims, and highlights his perspective as a working-class Swiss man experiencing the social landscape of post-war Europe. Editor: It makes me think about the access that Frank had, compared to the people portrayed in the film. Curator: Precisely. Think about his labor and their presentation, it changes how you see that red mark on one of the frames, right? Editor: Absolutely, I had not thought about it from that perspective. The way it shows not just the photographs but also his decision making, I am really beginning to think about his images very differently now.