City of London 5/Lines of My Hand 43 1952 - 1953

This is a black and white photographic contact sheet by Robert Frank. It’s an intimate look into the artist’s thought process, a little like looking at a painter’s palette. I imagine Frank wandering the foggy streets of London, wrestling with his camera. The city emerges in shades of grey, figures shrouded in mist like ghostly apparitions. The handwritten annotations and markings on the film offer clues, a kind of mapping of the artist's mind. The editing of a filmstrip is about choosing what to show. Is there a photo that really grabs him? Or one that has to be rejected? What are the artist's criteria? It's a constant back and forth, a call and response, between the eye, the hand, and the heart. Even the failures are revealing, like pentimenti in an old painting. It’s all part of the process. Frank’s contact sheet is a reminder that art is not just about the final image. It’s about the journey, the struggle, the messy, beautiful process of making.