Paris 57B 1951 - 1952

Robert Frank made this contact sheet, Paris 57B, using gelatin silver print. It's a gridded array of black and white photographic images that documents street scenes, monuments, and everyday life. I'm thinking about Frank walking the streets with his camera, trying to catch something, a feeling, a scene. He shoots a whole roll, not knowing exactly what he's got. It’s only later, in the darkroom, that he sees these images together, like a poem or a series of sketches. Each frame tells a little story, capturing a moment in time, but they also speak to each other. The contrast of light and shadow, the grainy texture, it’s raw and real. I wonder if he knew, in that moment, how these fleeting glimpses would come together? This reminds me of the way painters like Bonnard would capture the fleeting moments of life in paint, those passing moments that are both ordinary and profound. It’s like he’s saying, look at this, look at that, there is no hierarchy, but it's all interconnected.