Man with baguettes in street, Paris 1951

Curator: Here we have Robert Frank’s “Man with baguettes in street, Paris,” a silver gelatin print he made in 1951. What do you make of this nocturnal scene? Editor: Stark! It feels almost…stagey. The man, those baguettes… even the way the light catches the cars. It’s like he’s walking into a movie scene from the '50s. Curator: Frank, a master of street photography, found a way to tap into a sense of cinematic drama using only natural light, really. Editor: Natural, but the scene seems full of visual references. The baguettes are, of course, about nourishment and the rituals around food – a loaded symbol throughout art history. Here, though, it seems almost like he’s carrying… burdens. Curator: Perhaps those "burdens" might simply evoke Parisian life? We're invited to consider the everyday rhythms. This man might be returning home to a warm, comforting meal with his family, as so many did back then. What looks stagey to your modern eye, might have been completely normal back then. It’s easy to mythologize Europe and it’s many cities… Editor: True. And there's a compelling sense of tension. The background cars offer us a perspective of scale. A sense of space is given which is unusual in Frank's work and gives the whole piece an eerie dimension. There’s something unresolved here. A touch of longing? Curator: Yes. Robert Frank was not about perfectly staged scenes; his vision captures those poignant, transient moments that might be lost if we all just focus on life going "as expected". Editor: Frank encourages us to look beyond the veneer of daily life, and discover some beautiful secrets concealed in it. I agree, very poignant indeed. Curator: Perhaps like many photographs, we get a chance to discover new ones over time. Editor: That's it, a journey that evolves with each look. A great treat for our minds, isn’t it?