Guggenheim 349--Esso oil refinery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1955

This is Robert Frank's contact sheet, documenting the Esso oil refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and it’s just crackling with process. Look at the grid of images, a sequence of moments, a map of seeing. The textures in the images range from gritty to soft. Notice the rough industrial landscape, the play of light and shadow across the refinery, the mundane office, and the almost ethereal quality of the workers’ faces. It feels like Frank wasn't trying to pretty things up. It's like he's saying, "Here it is, in all its realness." Take the frame with the workers in the office, it’s so casually composed, it almost feels like a snapshot. The contact sheet as a whole reminds me a little of those early Muybridge motion studies, but instead of a horse galloping, it's the world, just unfolding. Frank always reminded me a little of Garry Winogrand, that same grab-and-go energy. It’s about the journey, you know? The looking.