Chinese festival--New York City no number 1954

This is Robert Frank’s contact sheet, "Chinese festival--New York City no number", made with silver gelatin on paper. It's all about seeing, and the potential of the photographic medium. Look at this thing. It’s a record of a process, like notes on a page, which is how I think of making paintings. There’s a rhythm and a flow between each of the frames: the light, the shadows, the contrasts, all working together. They're dark, and yet they give off a lot of light. They're of New York City, but the content is not the point. It's about this dance with the street, and the people in it, and the way Frank is editing the world. Frank reminds me a bit of Garry Winogrand, both of them grabbing life as it comes. I think both artists would agree that art is all about the process of questioning and exploring, rather than about achieving some fixed idea.