From the bus 56 1958

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, called 'From the bus 56', using photography, which is kinda like painting with light and time. Looking at this thing, I imagine Frank, a total street-life voyeur, peering out the bus window, snapping away, trying to catch glimpses of life unfolding. It's like he's painting, but with a camera, smearing the light and shadows to capture movement. I love the grit, how the graininess makes everything feel so immediate, so real. You can almost hear the rumble of the bus. Think about the selection process, what it must have been like for Frank to sift through all these images. This sheet shows his eye and process. It’s as if he’s saying: “here, look at all the choices, all the almost-theres, before I arrive at the image I want.” It makes me think about all the images we DON’T see, all the potentials that never made it. And how that’s kind of beautiful, too.