Guggenheim 107/Americans 2--Hoboken, New Jersey 27 - 1955

This is Robert Frank's photo contact sheet, 'Guggenheim 107/Americans 2--Hoboken, New Jersey,' and you know, when you look at a contact sheet you get a real sense of the artist's process. You see how they're thinking, the way they’re circling certain images in red, kinda saying, "Hey, look at this one!" It's like you're right there with them in the darkroom. I can imagine Frank, back then, in his darkroom, squinting at these tiny frames, trying to make sense of the world he captured. I bet he spent hours deciding which shots made the cut and which ones didn’t. And for me, it’s not just about the final image, but the whole damn journey, the trial and error. It's like the artist is always in conversation with themselves, with the world around them, and with the history of art itself. And this contact sheet, with all its messiness and imperfection, is a record of that conversation.