November 13, 2004

Robert Frank Storylines

I went to the Tate Modern last night to hear the latest Bruce Nauman installation and see the Robert Frank Storylines exhibition.

Of the many photographs in the Robert Frank exhibition, one was my favorite and another was most striking.

Photo by Robert Frank

The technical and compositional brilliance of this photo makes it my favorite. Along with this photo hung a contact sheet of the shots leading up to this one. Frank comes across a hearse in the street, he moves around it, shooting it at different angles. Then he sees the street cleaner and frames it within the car window. And then a little girl is running up the sidewalk and he quickly shoots a few frames to arrive at this moment captured.

Another photo showed a 1956 Chevrolet in Illinois. In the back window was a placcard that read, "Christ died for our sins" and hanging on the license plate was another sign that read, "Christ came to save sinners." Such imagery can still be found on American automobiles today. How strange that seems now having lived in Britain for 5 years.

The walk along the South Bank, over the Millennium Bridge and up to St. Paul's was just as wonderful as the exhibition itself. The sky was clear and the lights on the buildings and bridges were dazzling.