Theater--Hollywood 19 1958

Editor: So, here we have Robert Frank's "Theater--Hollywood 19," a gelatin silver print from 1958. It feels like a voyeuristic peek, all grainy and stark. It's a whole film strip, but one frame has a big red X on it. What’s your take on this raw look? Curator: Ah, Frank. Always finding beauty in the blemishes. For me, that marked frame isn’t a mistake, but a portal. I see it as the artist laying bare the act of selection itself – as if to ask, 'Why *this* image?' and equally important, 'Why *not* that one?' Do you feel invited by that compositional openness? Editor: I see what you mean. I do feel like he is almost making us complicit in the choice of the image to see by highlighting that x. Curator: Exactly! It makes me ponder the illusion of cinema, its meticulously constructed reality, while highlighting the accidental realities lurking within. All those rows of seats, a cathedral to fleeting shadows, captured by a light that's both revealing and strangely concealing. Doesn’t it feel a little like we’re peering at someone else's memory? Editor: Absolutely. It’s a ghostly echo. So, if we take that into account with this 'voyeuristic peek,' as I said, maybe we have to ask what it reveals about us as spectators as well? Curator: Beautifully put. In fact, the marked frame is less a choice made and more a statement of choices unmade! Now that has made my afternoon. Thank you. Editor: Definitely. Now I'm seeing those frames in a new way! It was also very helpful, thank you.