Alfred Leslie's show--New York City no number 1957

Robert Frank made this photo, Alfred Leslie's show--New York City no number, sometime in the mid-20th century, using a camera, film, and darkroom magic. It looks like a contact sheet, a kind of record, a behind-the-scenes look at how images are made. You see the artist thinking through the lens. The graininess, the high contrast, it's all part of the feel. I notice the way the frames are sequenced, almost like a storyboard. Frank isn't trying to hide the process; he's putting it right there. It's about seeing the world through someone else's eyes. The blurry images of people at the opening are particularly resonant. It's like a memory fading, a moment that's there and then gone. Think about how different this is to someone like Gerhard Richter, using photography as source material for painting. But Frank is looking for something else, capturing fleeting moments. It’s a reminder that art is always in conversation with itself.