Italy 9 1964

Robert Frank made "Italy 9," a black and white photograph, to experiment with how pictures can be arranged in a sequence. It’s a contact sheet, the kind photographers use to see all their shots at once; it’s usually a step on the way to making a final print, but here it’s the artwork itself. There’s this great moment in the bottom left, with someone flying through the air on a swing. The image is blurred, so you can really feel the speed and the joy of that split second. It's like Frank is capturing a feeling more than a specific image. By showing us the whole roll, Frank lets us see his process. It becomes clear how photographs build on each other and change the way we see. Think about how Sherrie Levine used Frank's work, re-photographing his images to ask questions about authorship and originality. It shows how one artist's work becomes a conversation for others.