Butcher shop, Paris 1951

Robert Frank made this photograph in Paris, and right away, the greyscale tones give a feeling of a memory, slightly nostalgic. I look at those suspended bovine heads, adorned with what looks like festive foliage, and I wonder what it was like to witness this scene through Frank’s eyes. What was he thinking? Perhaps this stark image, so brutally honest, was his way of capturing the essence of a city teeming with life, death, and commerce. The composition has this tension in it; the formality of the shot versus the abject rawness of the subject. Looking at the objects, their texture and their arrangement, I think about other artists who have used similar motifs. Soutine’s still lives of carcasses, for instance. They feel connected to Frank’s photograph, reaching across time. Artists, through their individual lenses, are constantly engaging with the world and each other.