Paris 12A 1949 - 1950

This is Robert Frank’s ‘Paris 12A’, and what we are seeing here is the artist’s process. I imagine Frank in his dark room, hunched over, developing these strips. These aren’t finished photographs, but the raw material. The artist's hand is present – look at the number 12, written twice on the strips in a thick dark marker. It’s intriguing to see the before and after, all the moments that didn’t quite make the cut. You can see how the artist is thinking, shifting slightly from frame to frame to capture a moment. It’s a reminder that even in photography, supposedly a medium of capturing reality, there's still so much choice, intuition, and editing involved. Each frame is a tiny gesture, an attempt to grasp something elusive. I find it quite moving, thinking of Frank, searching for something real in the streets of Paris. And it’s a reminder that every artist is on a similar search.