Robert Frank

Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans’ is a book which records America through the eyes of an outsider. It documents the country entirely impartially and without judgement or criticism, Frank merely observes, collecting moments which capture the banality of life in an extraordinary way. We are drawn to the small details highlighted by his photographs, things we may not otherwise have noticed.
He observes American patriotism; flags, a portrait of an ex-president etc. he then juxtaposes these with images of racial and class segregation inexplicitly leading the viewer to question just how egalitarian a place America really is.
There is a lot of religious imagery which shows the importance of religion in American society. By featuring this imagery, Frank is bringing to the fore American religious practice, this is remarkable because Frank was probably comparing this to the religious practices of his own people and society and moreover by publishing the photos he is allowing others to do the same.

One thing that I noticed about the book was that until the final image there are no images of Frank himself or his family as he travelled. I think that this shows how he wanted to show the Americans’ experience of America and not his own.
Although there are many images of people in this book there are also those in which there is a noticeable absence of people; he goes from the cities’ crowded streets to a seemingly infinite stretch of road, a deserted petrol station or an empty table. Places where one would expect to see human presence are made all the more poignant by their desolation. The black and white alone accentuates this but also Frank deliberately intensifies the contrast, making the light starker and the shadows deeper. This is something which I feel is a signature trait within his work, I believe that black and white images resonate deeper than those taken on colour film as they reduce the photo to it’s most prominent features thus fixing the viewers attention more immediately.


-‘The Americans’ – R. Frank
Image:http://www.lipsticktracez.com/reggie/2009/07/20/robert-frank_parade_hoboken.jpg