Guggenheim 723--Lincoln, Nebraska 1956

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, Guggenheim 723—Lincoln, Nebraska, sometime in the middle of the 20th century. It’s a silver gelatin print on paper, a pretty standard medium for photographers, but it shows us all the choices that went into making a picture. Looking at the whole sheet is really like getting a peek into Frank’s brain. There are a bunch of different scenes here, and each one is like a little puzzle piece. You can see Frank moving around, trying different angles, and figuring out what to focus on. In one frame, there’s an American flag, and in another, there’s a car. He’s clearly thinking about what it means to be American, but he’s not giving us any easy answers. The red marker drawings are really interesting. They’re like Frank is having a conversation with himself, circling what matters and editing out the rest. You know, art isn’t about perfection, it’s about process. It's like a dance between the artist and the world. Think about Garry Winogrand, another street photographer, obsessed with the moment. These guys are all part of a conversation about how we see and what we choose to remember.