Dogs 2 1957 - 1959

This is ‘Dogs 2’ by Robert Frank, and it's a black and white photograph, a series of celluloid film strips arranged on a dark grey surface. It looks like Frank was trying to catch something elusive, the soul of a dog maybe, or the way they move through space. I feel a strange kinship with Frank here. As a painter, I know that feeling of trying to capture something fleeting. Is it about the way a certain light falls, or a particular expression? Maybe he felt like he had to keep shooting, keep experimenting, to find the right image. You can see the texture of the film itself, the sprocket holes, the numbers. It reminds me of the physicality of paint, the way it can be built up in layers, each one influencing the next. There's this image, it's out of focus, a dog’s face blurred, but somehow it communicates so much. That's what painting is all about, that conversation across time, inspiring each other to keep creating, keep pushing. We’re all just trying to express something, capture a feeling, with whatever materials we have at hand.