Hollywood 14 1958

This is Robert Frank’s photographic artwork, Hollywood 14. It’s an arrangement of frames from a 35mm film roll. The material itself – celluloid film - is crucial to understanding the work. Photography, though celebrated as art, really came into its own with mass production, and became a relatively inexpensive way of image-making. This made it radically different from painting and sculpture. Frank, however, wasn’t interested in photography as a product. Rather, he exploited it as a process, a way of recording spontaneous, fleeting moments. Here, the images are presented as they came off the roll. The sprocket holes are still visible, and the frames are not individually selected and printed as ‘precious’ objects. The black and white tonality gives the work a documentary feel, rather than the aesthetic of a Hollywood film. This approach challenges traditional notions of artistic skill and labor, emphasizing instead the artist's role as an observer and compiler of information.