Paris 46B 1951 - 1952

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, Paris 46B, sometime during his travels, capturing slices of life on film. It’s a collection of moments, really – a visual diary laid out for us to peek into. What strikes me is the handwritten marks all over it. The numbers scribbled in blue, the squares and rectangles drawn around certain frames. It’s like Frank is talking to himself, editing and annotating, making sense of what he’s captured. I think this offers a clue to the process of making, as a conversation, an exchange of ideas between the artist and their work. The materiality of this piece is fascinating. It's not just about the images themselves, but also the film grain, the scratches, and the way the light interacts with the surface. Those little imperfections make it real, tangible. For me, the whole thing has a kind of casualness that embraces ambiguity. It feels like Frank is saying, "Here's what I saw, make of it what you will." Think of what Nan Goldin was doing, the snapshot aesthetic. It's all part of this ongoing conversation, isn't it?