Guggenheim 366--Houston, Texas 1955

This is Robert Frank’s photographic work, "Guggenheim 366--Houston, Texas" made with film, a material with its own specific texture and grain. Looking at this contact sheet, you see a collection of moments, not a single, decisive one. It’s like a sketchbook page, full of experiments. Each frame is a little study in seeing. Frank's composition is very raw, kind of accidental. Some frames are blurry or tilted, which gives the feeling of immediacy. In the middle of the sheet, there is a frame with the number '18-18', repeated twice, which is mirrored. I read that as a formal exercise: a study of shape and form. It strikes me that this work is similar to Moholy-Nagy’s photographic investigations, thinking about the way that the camera sees, and the role of chance in the artistic process.