Bullfight--Spain 6

This is a photographic work, "Bullfight--Spain 6," by Robert Frank, from around the 1950s; it’s a contact sheet, an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the artist’s process. I love how Frank leaves everything raw, visible. There's no attempt to hide the seams. In fact, he revels in them! The sprocket holes, the handwritten notes, the varying exposures – it’s all there, laid bare. The bullfight images themselves are grainy, almost ghostly. Then, above, images of people sitting, looking, and maybe also playing guitar - like another kind of performance. The materiality of the film is so present. You can almost smell the darkroom chemicals. There is a sense of immediacy, like you’re right there with Frank as he’s developing these images. And that bold ‘6’ scrawled on the top? That feels like a little wink from the artist, acknowledging the messy, imperfect nature of artmaking. Frank reminds me of another photographer who was working in a similar vein, Helen Levitt, also reveling in the everyday and in capturing chance moments.