Life-Raft-Earth, San Francisco 1969

Robert Frank’s ‘Life-Raft-Earth, San Francisco’ is a gelatin silver print, and the interesting thing about photography is how it both captures a moment and reveals a process. Frank gives us a film strip, unedited, mistakes and all. This isn’t a slick image; it’s raw, like a sketch in a painter’s notebook, and full of dark, grainy blacks, offset by the clear white borders of the film. The repetition of the images is like a stutter, each frame a slight variation on the last. The third row looks like a hand held object. It reminds me of Cy Twombly, because of the way that he didn't mind showing his working process. There’s a refusal to conceal, embracing the inherent imperfections of the medium. This honesty, this embrace of the imperfect, is what gives the work its power. It’s a reminder that art isn’t about perfection; it’s about seeing and feeling and showing the world as we find it.