Guggenheim 103/Ford 26--Detroit 1955

Editor: This is Robert Frank's "Guggenheim 103/Ford 26—Detroit," taken in 1955. It's a photographic print, showing several frames from a roll of film, seemingly documenting activity inside the Ford plant. The greyscale palette makes the whole image feel a little stark and documentary. What do you make of it? Curator: The contact sheet format is really important here. It foregrounds the photographic *process* itself. Each frame offers a slightly different perspective on the labor within the factory, inviting us to consider the repetitive actions and industrial machinery that defined much of mid-century life. Editor: So, you're focusing on the making, rather than a singular perfect image? Curator: Absolutely! Think about the context. Frank was photographing America at a time of burgeoning consumer culture. By revealing the process, the materiality of the photographic strip itself, he points to the very *means* by which we are shown images. These images reinforced dominant narratives of progress and prosperity, but by unveiling the work behind image production he shows the social context of image-making. What’s being produced here – both automobiles and a photographic narrative? What kind of labor do we see? Editor: I see workers doing repetitive tasks, surrounded by a network of machines...there is certainly a sense of routine in the air. Curator: Precisely. The mundane reality of labor and the photographic medium. Think too about the consumption of the finished product: both the cars that leave the factory and the images that shape perceptions. This connects to the broader questions of how our culture manufactures not just commodities, but also ideas. Editor: I never considered the material process in terms of what we consume... it definitely sheds new light on the whole photograph! Curator: Exactly! Seeing the labor of the workers together with the industrial process really changes your interpretation. Hopefully this changes your perception as well, opening a different world of meanings.