Paris 15 1959

Robert Frank's "Paris 15" captures a series of moments on a roll of film, presented as a whole, a bit like a storyboard, or a series of snapshots. Each frame is a glimpse, a fragment of life in Paris, recorded through Frank's lens. The materiality here is raw, unpolished. The film strip itself becomes the artwork, complete with sprocket holes and manufacturer's markings. This is photography at its most basic, an index of time and place. Each image is a little world, with its own texture and tone. There’s one frame, somewhere in the middle, a crowd gathered, faces blurred. It’s grainy, almost abstract. This is where the photo shifts from documentary to feeling. Frank’s work always reminds me of Walker Evans. Both artists had an interest in the everyday, in capturing the poetry of ordinary life. And like all great art, it invites us to see the world in new and unexpected ways.