Robert Frank b1924
''When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice."
Parade - Hoboken, New Jersey
When Swiss American photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank published The Americans, in 1958 it influenced a whole generation of documentary, street photographers and artists from Norman Mailer to Robert Mapplethorpe and Francis Bacon. Probably one of the most iconic visual books which looks beneath the surface of American life it gave a fresh and skeptical outsider's view of American society. Frank changed the conventional portrayal of America, noting that cars, jukeboxes, gas stations, diners, and even the road itself were telling symbols of contemporary life. Although Frank’s depiction of American life was criticized when the book was released in the U.S. in 1959, it soon became recognized as a masterpiece of street photography.
Using his 35mm Leica Frank shot 767 rolls of film on his 10,000 mile road trip across America between 1955 – 1956, a total of 27,612 individual shots. He then edited it down and made over 1,000 work prints of different images and after 2 years finally selected the 83 images for the book. The images were arranged into four sections each introduced by a photo of an American flag.
Shortly after returning to New York in 1957, Frank met Beat writer Jack Kerouac on the sidewalk outside a party and showed him the photographs from his travels asking Kerouac to write the introduction to the U.S. edition of the book. Both men shared the belief that U.S. power had an often corrupting influence; the most important political aim of the “Beat” movement was to change the country spiritually and culturally. Kerouac’s “true-story novels” and Frank’s images of patriotism and militarism helped to portray that discontent.
For Frank, being Jewish and growing up in a neutral country in Europe during World War 2 and seeing many Jews surrounding him being rounded up and terminated must have influence his deeply emotional photographic vision.
During a Californian road trip I noticed many homes had an American flag flying outside their door this made me realise how Americans are very patriotic. Although it would be a strange site to see many suburban houses bearing the Union Jack in England this is quite a common site in America. The clothing of the two ladies shows us that this photo was taken in 1950’s. I like the formal structure, the geometric lines and there is a strong use of the rule of thirds with the window frames dividing the image up vertically.
