Peru 9 1948

Robert Frank made this film contact sheet, Peru 9, using gelatin silver print. I think the way the frames are laid out, slightly askew, gives this a really informal, process-led feel, like he just developed the film and slapped it down on the page. There are so many different moods contained on the single sheet, like a roll of film is a thought process that zig zags and doubles back on itself. The grainy surface of the images has a kind of emotional texture, like the photographs have been through something. Looking at the strip with the bathers, there is a strange mixture of voyeurism and a deep empathy that feels somehow very diaristic. The big '9' scrawled in the corner has a punkish, DIY feel, like Patti Smith scrawling on a polaroid. Thinking about photographers with this diaristic, rough-hewn style, the obvious comparison is Nan Goldin. It's like both artists use the camera as a way to record their own lives, unvarnished.