Florida 22 1958

Robert Frank’s ‘Florida 22’ presents strips of black and white 35mm film on a black background, a kind of personal editing process laid bare. You see the artist's selection, his working method. The material aspect here is raw, you can almost smell the darkroom chemicals. The high contrast, grainy blacks and stark whites, tell a story of light and shadow, both literally and metaphorically. My eye is drawn to the strip in the middle where a blue line marks a set of frames, and then further down, a red square highlights another. These marks create a sense of rhythm, directing our gaze, almost like musical notes on a staff. The red square draws my attention to an image of what appears to be a tunnel, a liminal space, a passage. Frank’s work has this beautiful tension between chance and control, reminding me a little of the street photography of Garry Winogrand, both capturing life’s beautiful, messy reality. Ultimately, it's about embracing the unexpected and finding meaning in the everyday.