Convention 24 1956

Robert Frank’s ‘Convention 24’ is a photographic collage of black and white film strips. The dark tonality creates a somber mood, and the red pen markings feel like interruptions. I wonder what it was like for Frank, piecing together these fragments. Was he searching for a coherent narrative, or did he embrace the disjointedness? There's a tension between the individual frames and the whole; a push and pull. The American flags recur, almost like a dark, ironic joke. I feel a sense of alienation. The high contrast makes it feel stark. Artists are always in conversation, borrowing and riffing off each other's ideas. Frank's sequencing and framing remind me of Gerhard Richter’s ‘Atlas’, both wrestling with the chaos of images, trying to make sense of the world.