Convention 11 1956

This is Robert Frank's 'Convention 11', a black and white photograph, probably made with a handheld camera. I see contact sheets; I imagine the artist working in a darkroom, his hands moving with precision and care. There's something cool about the way he captured these moments, a kind of detached observation. It makes me think about the tension between being present in a moment and trying to document it. The graininess of the image, the stark contrast, it's all so raw and real. It feels like he’s wrestling with something. Like he’s in a conversation with Cartier-Bresson, but also, somehow, against him. I think about the act of looking, of framing, of trying to make sense of the world through a lens. It's a reminder that art is never really finished, it's always evolving, always responding to what came before.