Butcher shop window, Paris 1951

This photograph of a butcher shop window in Paris was taken by Robert Frank at an unknown date. It's not a painting, but it shares a sensibility with paintings. I can imagine Robert Frank wandering through the streets of Paris, camera in hand, when this scene caught his eye. The way the light falls on the hanging carcasses, the starkness of the black and white, and the contrast between the living and the dead. Frank isn't just documenting a butcher shop; he's capturing a mood, a feeling of urban life. It's like a Dutch still life painting, but raw and immediate, like Soutine. There's an honesty in Frank's work that reminds me of the best painters. He's not trying to pretty things up or tell a story; he's just showing us what he sees. And in that simple act of seeing, he invites us to think about life, death, and everything in between. I find Frank so inspiring, he allows himself to be vulnerable, to capture the everyday with such sensitivity.