Butcher shop window, Paris 1951

This silver gelatin print of a butcher shop window in Paris was captured by Robert Frank. The composition is a visual maze, drawing you in, and then blocking your path. The vertical bars act as a gate, partially obscuring the tableau behind. I can imagine Frank peering through, framing the shot with a keen eye. What was he thinking as he pressed the shutter? Was he struck by the contrast between the mundane and the macabre? The lifeless heads hanging like strange fruit, juxtaposed with the daily ritual of commerce? There’s a dance between light and shadow, creating a grainy texture that feels both gritty and dreamlike. It reminds me of other photographers who captured the poetics of everyday life, like Eugène Atget, who documented the streets of Paris with a similar sense of curiosity and melancholy. There is a conversation happening between these artists, across time and space, each adding their own verse to the ongoing poem of visual expression.