Guggenheim 645A/Americans 57--San Francisco 1956

This is a proof sheet by Robert Frank, full of little glimpses of America. Contact sheets like this are where a photographer makes decisions: which frames have the magic? I love the red grease pencil marks, like a kid was doodling. They are very painterly. I imagine Frank hunched over this, his brow furrowed, a loupe in his eye, as he circled the frames that spoke to him, that would make the cut. Why those and not others? What was he thinking? Each frame is like a little painting, a distillation of a moment, of a feeling. Cemeteries appear a few times here. There is a lonely silence about the work. And the grease pencil marks feel like both an edit, but also maybe a layer of protection. Painters and photographers are always in dialogue. Think of the way Gerhard Richter painted from photographs, smearing them to create a blurred sense of memory. Robert Frank and Richter are very different artists but both remind us that an image is never just a representation, it’s a conversation.