Nixon campaign 29 1960

This is Robert Frank's photo strip, titled *Nixon campaign 29.* It's a material record of a photographic process, complete with red grease pencil markings. I can imagine Frank with his camera, his eye, and a sense of unease, moving amongst the crowd, trying to isolate something, some truth, but of course there are many truths, so he selects and marks them on the roll. The red markings feel decisive, like a painter's firm line. The filmstrip form gives us a sense of time passing. Maybe he saw something, felt something, and circled it, as if to say, “This… this is what I mean.” He is editing his own experience, the way a painter layers and scrapes away. Each frame captures a different angle, a different expression, all adding up to something bigger. Like the marks of paint, they speak to feeling, intention, and meaning. Artists are always building on what came before, responding to each other across time, even if they don’t know it.