Children playing, Paris 1951

Robert Frank shot this photograph, *Children playing, Paris,* sometime in the middle of the 20th century. Look at the way Frank positions us in the scene – right there in the park, dust flying up around our ankles. I love the contrast between the serious sculpture and the kids playing, you know? It’s like a stage set, classical but totally alive. I can imagine Frank looking through the lens, thinking about framing all these different kinds of figures together. There’s a tension, a kind of friction, between the frozen drama of the statue and the fleeting, joyful movements of the children. It must have felt like a lucky accident to happen upon a scene like this. He must have been thrilled. Frank’s photographs always have a casual, tossed-off quality that many artists have since tried to imitate. In his work, just like in painting, there are no mistakes. There is just life.