Wright Morris no number 1951

This is Robert Frank’s photo of Wright Morris, no number, printed on paper, but without a date. It’s a contact sheet, showing a sequence of shots, a whole roll of film. Like an artist's sketchbook page, it presents the images as a series or a process, rather than one perfect, isolated moment. What strikes me is the texture. It's all about the contrast between light and shadow, how the light models the figure of the man in the shots. Frank is making something, in his work, that feels like a deliberate embrace of reality’s imperfections. He is letting the accidents in. Look at the way the images move from left to right, then drop to the next line, like reading text. It’s a subtle thing, but it reminds us that seeing is a process, a kind of looking that can be learned. Much like the work of Lisette Model, who taught Frank, these shots remind us that art is an ongoing conversation, always open to new perspectives.