Guggenheim 555--Car wash, Hollywood, California 1956

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, Guggenheim 555--Car wash, Hollywood, California, probably in the 1950s or 60s, and it shows his way of working, a real stream of consciousness approach to picture making. It's black and white, grainy, and raw, just like the world seen through Frank's eyes. The images are like quick sketches, capturing a moment, a mood, a slice of life. You can see the whole strip of negatives, the artist's selection, the evidence of the choices he made in the darkroom. The images themselves, are a fleeting glance at a car wash in Hollywood. But it's not really about the car wash, is it? It's about the feeling, the atmosphere, the people hanging around, caught between one thing and another. It's like a visual poem, full of little details that add up to something bigger, something about America, about life, about the way we see things. There's a cinematic quality to Frank's images, reminiscent of early Cassavetes films; edgy, full of raw emotion and human connection. And like Cassavetes, Frank challenges us to see the beauty in the mundane, the poetry in the everyday.