Children playing, Paris 1951

Robert Frank made this photograph of children playing in Paris. What strikes me about this photo is the framing—the children are in the foreground, while an adult figure is set back on the wall. I'm curious about what Frank was thinking. Was he relating the position of the children to the man? I imagine Frank watching the children as they run, their energy barely contained within the frame, while the man appears static. There is also an interesting contrast between the smooth faces of the children and the rough, aged texture of the stone wall behind them. Maybe Frank was thinking about time, how the wall has stood there for ages, a silent witness to generations of children playing? How these forms of captured play relate to Frank’s wider practice of photographing people on the streets of America and Europe is a fascinating question. There is an ongoing exchange of ideas and inspiration across time, each informing the other's creativity.