Circus, Palisades 5 1958

Robert Frank’s photographic contact sheet, *Circus, Palisades 5*, is like a painter’s sketchbook page—the artist's thinking, exposed. Imagine Frank, hunched over in the darkroom, methodically laying strips of negatives onto paper. He's not just making copies but engaging in a dialogue with his own images. He's wrestling with them, trying to understand what they mean, what they *could* mean. Look at the variations in the shots, and consider the subtle shifts in perspective. They remind me of the way I rework a single form in my paintings, searching for that elusive rightness. The high-contrast black and white emphasizes the grit and grain, a texture that feels both raw and intentional. In those blurred figures and stark shadows, it feels like Frank is searching, a restless energy that resonates with my own process. I think of artists as being in a perpetual conversation across time. Frank’s searching eye speaks to something deep in me, that restless urge to capture something just out of reach.