From the bus 65 1958

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, From the bus 65, as a kind of sketch book, maybe. It’s all about the process of seeing, and how a series of moments can create a narrative. There are so many different images here, from street scenes to close-ups of faces. The high contrast gives it a stark, immediate feel, like a series of quick observations jotted down in ink. Look at the frame showing the bus reflected in a window. The way the light catches the edges of the bus creates a ghost-like quality. Frank has that restless energy that reminds me of the painter, Gerhard Richter. Both artists invite us to see the world as a collection of fragments, always in flux. Ultimately it’s less about the individual images and more about the relationships between them, the way they speak to each other across time and space.