Belsize Crescent--London 36/Lines of My Hand 49 1952 - 1953

Robert Frank made this gelatin silver print, Belsize Crescent--London 36/Lines of My Hand 49, sometime in the mid-twentieth century. It's a contact sheet, a record of the artist's process. Look at how these tiny frames create a rhythm, a little movie strip of London. The images are gray, grainy, and the repetition of architectural details, cars, and figures walking in the distance, creates a sense of movement and time passing. You get the feeling that Frank isn't just taking pictures, he's collecting moments, arranging them in a sequence, like a visual poem. There's a huge orange 36 scrawled on the negative, which looks accidental but also purposeful, like a painter's gesture disrupting the scene. This piece reminds me a little of the work of Gerhard Richter. He also thought about the relationship between photography and painting, chance and intention, and how we see and remember the world. Frank’s contact sheet isn't about perfect images; it's about the messy, beautiful process of seeing.