Butcher shop window, Paris 1951

Robert Frank captured this image of a Parisian butcher shop with his camera, a tool of stark realism. The photograph, with its grainy texture and high contrast, exposes the raw reality of food production. Carcasses hang on hooks; a blunt display of flesh rendered through the alchemic darkroom processes. The bodies of dead animals—rabbits, a boar—expose the labor and processes behind consumerism. Frank wasn't interested in slick, flattering images. Here, the composition is almost brutal, unflinching. It prompts us to consider how we often sanitize the sources of our food and other material comforts. This shot refuses to pretty things up; it acknowledges the messy, sometimes disturbing truths of how we live. Frank invites us to consider the full story behind the things we consume, challenging the separation of finished product from its origins.