Guggenheim 751/Americans 21--New Haven, Connecticut 1956

This is Robert Frank’s “Guggenheim 751/Americans 21—New Haven, Connecticut”, a photograph, but it's not just one image, it's a whole strip of film. This is photography as a process. The way he shows us the film strip is a clue, right? It’s raw, direct. There is no attempt to hide the mechanics. The high contrast black and white adds to this feeling. Look at the second strip down. There are all these figures in gowns and hats. It’s like a dark mass. The textures create such a strong atmosphere. Then you see the blank sky above and everything shifts. Frank is showing us something about America, but it's not one thing. It's a series of glances, a collection of moments. It’s the way he put these moments together, how one shot talks to another. Think about the seriality of Muybridge, and how he documented movement, only here the movement is social. It’s a moving picture of American life. It's never going to be fixed or easy.