Children playing--San Francisco 1956

Robert Frank made this photograph, "Children Playing--San Francisco," using gelatin silver print. Frank’s world is caught on the fly, he snatches it, with all its beauty and imperfection, and here the asphalt and concrete feels like it's breathing, moving. It is alive. There is a lot of grey scale here, so that the buildings in the background feel solid, whilst the children in the foreground seem to merge into their surroundings. You can almost hear the pounding of their feet on the pavement. The children create dark shadows as they run, and these marks almost become characters in their own right. Frank doesn't tell us what to feel. He presents what is, and the feelings emerge from the grittiness, the shadows, and the overall mood. It reminds me of Eugène Atget, but with more movement, more drama, and a touch of existential angst. It's a photograph about the fleeting nature of childhood, the urban landscape, and the poetry of everyday life.