Central casting--Hollywood 11 1958

Robert Frank's "Central Casting--Hollywood 11" is like a storyboard for a movie never made, a film strip of potential and maybe of disappointment too. I imagine Frank, eyes wide open behind the camera, wandering through casting calls, a voyeur in the land of dreams, looking for reality. He’s trying to capture not just faces, but the very essence of "Hollywood." You see the desperation, the boredom, the waiting. There’s this beautiful tension between the staged and the candid. Frank is playing with the idea of performance itself, the act of being seen, of trying to fit a mold, and maybe trying to break free. It makes you wonder, who are these people, what are their stories, and what version of themselves are they presenting to the world? Frank's whole project was about exposing the gap between the American dream and the American reality. I feel him, poking, testing, always questioning.