Subway 8 1955

Robert Frank’s ‘Subway 8’ is a photographic contact sheet. He would have used it as part of his editing process, in this case marking the frame he wanted to use with a vibrant red '8'. Looking at this sheet, I think about Frank as a kind of collagist, layering frames and moments to create something new. The texture of the film and the sprocket holes become part of the composition. It's not just about the image within each frame but also about the space between, the rhythm of the sequence. The red number 8 looks like a painted intervention, almost like a Cy Twombly doodle. It draws your eye to the selected image but also reminds you that this is a physical object, handled and marked by the artist. This work reminds me of the ongoing conversation that is art making, with each artist adding their own marks to the ongoing story. It invites us to consider the editing process as a creative act in itself.