Children playing, Paris 1951

Robert Frank captured these children playing in Paris with his camera, creating a scene that feels both spontaneous and carefully composed. There’s a wonderful range of tones, from the pale sky to the dark figures of the kids and the man above, that gives the image a real depth. I’m drawn to the way Frank uses light and shadow to create texture, like the rough surface of the stone wall behind the children. You can almost feel the cool dampness of the stone. And the way the light catches the children's faces, it’s like he’s painting with light. Look at the boy running to the left, he's a blur, captured in action, a perfect metaphor for the fleeting nature of childhood. Frank’s work reminds me of Helen Levitt's street photography, they both have an eye for the poetry of everyday life. Both artists celebrate the messy, unpredictable beauty of the world around them, embracing ambiguity and multiple perspectives rather than trying to impose a single, fixed meaning.