Paris 34A 1949 - 1950

Here's the audio guide script: This is Robert Frank's "Paris 34A," a photographic contact sheet, like a painter's palette, full of potential. What strikes me is how Frank leaves everything visible, the rejected takes, the notes, the raw process of looking. The scratches and dust on the negative are as much a part of the work as the images themselves. Look at the strip near the bottom. You can see the number '34' scrawled, almost like graffiti, connecting it to the title. It reminds me that photography, like painting, is a physical thing. Frank isn't trying to hide the hand of the artist, but to celebrate it. I think of other photographers who also embraced the gritty reality of the medium. Someone like William Klein, maybe. But Frank is distinct in his poetic touch, finding beauty in the everyday, the accidental. It's all about seeing, and showing us how to see. It is a conversation about how images are made, and what they mean.