The Palladium--New York City no number 1954

This is “The Palladium--New York City” by Robert Frank. It’s a photo of film strips, contact sheets maybe, remnants of a night at the Palladium. I love seeing process, the underbelly, all the stuff that gets chucked away to leave you with the perfect image. These strips are all about what happens before that “perfect” shot, all the attempts and misses, plus the bits between the shots too. It makes me think about all the different choices you can make, just by framing the same subject in a slightly different way. The physical film itself is kind of beautiful, the way the light catches on those little sprockets, the texture of the grain. The way the frames are cropped off by the edge of the shot gives a satisfying snap. I think about other artists who put process at the forefront, like Sol Lewitt, or even Gerhard Richter, the way they show the decisions and the labor. It makes the art more human somehow. It's more than just a picture; it's a record of looking.