Café table, Paris 1951

Robert Frank captured this image, "Cafe Table, Paris", with a camera, sometime in the mid-20th century. It’s a simple scene, but look how the light sort of bleeds and blooms, softening every edge. I think what gets me is the glass vase, how it catches the light yet remains almost invisible. It reminds me of the way we try to hold onto moments, how they slip through our fingers no matter how tight we grip. Frank doesn't try to prettify the scene. Instead, he embraces the grit, the imperfections. It makes me think of Walker Evans, another photographer who found beauty in the everyday. But where Evans is precise, Frank is raw, like a painter who attacks the canvas with emotion. And isn't that what art is all about, anyway? Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, the beauty in the broken.