Cowboys no number 1954

This is Robert Frank’s photograph, Cowboys no number, a black and white contact sheet made sometime in the mid-twentieth century. As a painter, I’m always struck by the texture of photography: here the graininess of the film, the high contrast… it almost feels like it could be silk-screened, you know? I mean, think about the way Rauschenberg used silkscreens, layering images to create this kind of collage effect. I imagine Robert Frank moving around the cowboys. He is a fly on the wall, observing them. Maybe he’s thinking about Walker Evans, about capturing America, and the mythology of the West. I like the framing. The way the film strip is almost like a painterly grid. You’re seeing the world through a lens, sure, but the way it’s presented, the material quality of the photograph itself, feels really present. Frank is in conversation with other artists. It’s all about exchange, you know? That's what keeps art alive. It’s never just one voice, it’s a chorus.