San Yu and an unidentified woman--Paris 52B 1951 - 1952

Robert Frank made this work – a series of photographs, really – in Paris. It’s not so different from how a painter might work through an idea: one mark leading to the next, a process of sifting and selecting, trying to find the right arrangement. I can imagine Frank wandering through Paris with his camera, seeing things, reacting, framing, and capturing moments, and also seeing the potential in editing the images. The materiality of film is so different from that of paint, and yet there are so many shared concerns around composition, light, and shadow. There’s a loose, sketchbook-like quality, and the red and blue annotations over the images give it an immediacy. Frank wasn’t just taking photographs, but was actively constructing meaning through the act of selection, and that brings him into conversation with a wide range of artists. As artists, we’re constantly speaking to one another across time, and Frank’s photographs are a vital part of that exchange.