Photographic History Collection: J
name: label: maker
content: Frank, Robert
notes: label: Description
content: The Robert Frank collection in the National Museum of American History’s Photographic History Collection is comprised of six black and white prints from his seminal series “The Americans.” Taken during his 1957 car trip across America facilitated by a Guggenheim grant, Frank captured the mood of a post-war nation.
label: Description
content: Born in Switzerland in 1924, Robert Frank was not a native of the country to which he dedicated years of work. After living in Switzerland for 23 years, he immigrated to New York in 1947 to begin work in the field of photography. With the help of mentor and influential photography Walker Evans, he secured a Guggenheim scholarship that allowed him to pursue work on “The Americans.” In his proposal for the Guggenheim scholarship, the project was described as an "observation and record of what one naturalized American finds to see in the United States." To embark on this exploration, Frank bought a car in 1955 and started his road trip by driving first to Detroit. His journey consisted of 10,000 miles across the country with stops in cities such as Savannah, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles, including many more along the way. One year later, his travels ended back in New York. The result of his drive cross-country was over 27,000 photographs and 760 rolls of film, shot with Tri-X film on a Leica 35-mm camera.
label: Description
content: Published in the United States in 1959 and one year earlier in France, “The Americans” featured 83 of the photographs he took during his travels. Frank spent a grueling period of time in his studio where he viewed 1,000 working prints before editing them down to 100, and finally to 83. The ultimate result was a carefully selected group of images that presented the view of American life that Frank encountered and chose to convey.
label: Description
content: The images in the Photographic History Collection portray subjects that are often pensive, isolated, and distant; qualities that the rest of the series expresses as well. A man on his motorcycle, sits apart from the crowd, a young girl running down the street past a parked hearse, a man getting his shoes shined in an empty restroom, three gay Hispanic young men on the street, a man sitting alone in his garden, and an elderly man on a ship looking off into the distance each possess characteristics of Frank’s America. Though each of these photographs were included in the series, only three made it past Frank’s rigorous editing process and into the published book “The Americans.” These published photographs are “Backyard, Venice,” “Homosexuals,” and “Men’s Room.” Other photographs in the series capture people he encountered, or scenes with objects that symbolized 1950s American culture such as televisions, jukeboxes, and diners.
label: Description
content: “The Americans” continues to be one of the most celebrated photography books of the century and is considered to be the benchmark of Frank’s career.
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content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
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content: Photography
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: COLL.PHOTOS.000062
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Robert Frank collection