Vendors in snow, Paris 1951

This photograph, *Vendors in Snow, Paris*, was made by Robert Frank sometime in the mid-twentieth century. Look at the way the world condenses to grey scale, to a range of foggy, atmospheric marks that coalesce into an image. For me, it’s the texture that grabs you - the wet ground, the snow falling. There’s this beautiful contrast between the soft, blurred background and the sharp, almost graphic, shapes of the vendors and their carts. The eye is drawn to the dark, repeated forms of the woven baskets, stacked high on the cart, creating a rhythm that cuts through the gloom. It gives the image a strange kind of energy and momentum, and a feeling of the weight being carried by the workers. The picture reminds me of the work of Eugène Atget, who also documented everyday Parisian life. Like Atget, Frank finds beauty in the ordinary, elevating the mundane to something poetic and timeless. Both artists invite us to see the world anew. There’s no easy answer. Just an open ended invitation to see.