Charles Mingus--London 9 1952 - 1953

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, ‘Charles Mingus—London 9’, using gelatin silver print. It's a photographer's tool, a method of selection, but in this case the sheet becomes the work. I imagine Frank in the darkroom, his hands methodically printing each frame, making choices, editing, and marking the sheet. The handwritten red number and the squares that surround certain frames suggest a decision-making process, a kind of intuitive mapping of the image’s potential, and the photographer's eye. It reminds me of the way Cy Twombly would mark his canvases, or how some painters make preparatory sketches. It’s all part of a bigger conversation, an exchange of ideas and a testament to how artists inspire one another. This contact sheet invites us to consider the multiple possibilities inherent in every image, and how meaning emerges through selection, arrangement, and the simple act of seeing.