Butcher shop, Paris 1951

Robert Frank shot "Butcher Shop, Paris" with a camera, naturally. It’s all about how he frames the scene, right? The composition is so frontal, so matter-of-fact. The texture in this photograph is something else. The graininess gives it this raw, almost tactile quality. And the way the light catches on the cows' heads, it’s like he's sculpting with light and shadow. Look at the dark pools of their eyes. Are they mournful? Or is that just me projecting? I can't help but think of Soutine's paintings of carcasses, that similar sense of intimacy with the animal form. Frank is part of a longer conversation about how we see and what we choose to look at. The beauty and the grotesque, all tangled up together. And that's what makes it so compelling, don’t you think?