Guggenheim 555--Car wash, Hollywood, California 1956

Robert Frank shot this contact sheet, Guggenheim 555--Car wash, Hollywood, California, at an unknown date. The magic of a contact sheet is that it lets you glimpse the artist’s eye at work, editing, cropping, and seeing what the world gives him through the lens. I can imagine Robert Frank thinking of the composition of the sheet, the relationship of one frame to the next, and how light bounces off the surface. You see the whole process in one go. What an amazing slice of life! I can imagine him walking around Hollywood, the smell of car wax in the air, the crowds gathering. Each frame tells a mini-story, a fleeting moment captured in a rectangle. It’s like a film strip, the way he organizes the photos, creating a narrative through sequencing. It’s like when I am painting, layering one stroke after another, each mark building on the last. Frank composes and creates rhythms out of chaos. And as painters do, he builds, responds and transforms.