Guggenheim 25--South Carolina 1955

Robert Frank made this photographic filmstrip, "Guggenheim 25--South Carolina," with his camera. I love seeing the process laid bare like this. It's a way of saying, hey, art isn't magic, it’s a result of choices, edits, a way of seeing, and a way of showing. The contact sheet exposes the guts of how photographs get made. The dark frames around the images, the sprocket holes, it's the real stuff of image making. The frames capture couples dancing, caught in a moment of joy, bodies moving, dresses swirling. The red marks and arrows, pointing, circling, these are the artist's edits, maybe ways to choose, maybe not. It gives me a sense of being let in on the artist's thinking. It reminds me of work by Ed Ruscha who also likes to present something obvious, but that is often overlooked. It is through his lens that the everyday becomes extraordinary. Art is always just a conversation, one thought or method bouncing off another.