Dimensions: sheet: 25.2 x 20.2 cm (9 15/16 x 7 15/16 in.)
Copyright: National Gallery of Art: CC0 1.0
Robert Frank captured this street scene in Paris using photography, a medium that can be so immediate and raw. Look at how the light falls – or doesn’t – creating these stark contrasts between the figures and the wet street. There's a sense of the incidental here, like Frank just grabbed this moment as it unfolded. The blur of people in the background, the discarded flowers in the foreground – it’s all so fleeting and, dare I say, a little sad. Those flowers on the ground, wrapped in paper, mirror the fresh ones the woman carries. Frank had this knack for making the ordinary seem profound, a quality I always admired in Garry Winogrand, too. Both of them could find poetry in the everyday, and that’s what keeps me coming back to their work. It's a reminder that art isn't just about beauty, it’s about seeing.
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