Talking about Robert Frank and The Americans

In this episode, we dive into The Americans, Robert Frank’s groundbreaking photo book that reshaped the way we think about documentary and street photography. Frank was born in 1927 in Switzerland. Growing up with Nazism, he had deep skepticism of authority. After moving to American in 1947, Frank received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955 and set off on a cross-country journey to photograph everyday American life. Over the course of 10,000 miles, 28,000 images he selected a core 83 images that cut through the facade of 1950s to reveal a country grappling with race, isolation, and inequality. Unlike the crisp, idealized photography of the time, Frank’s work was grainy, off-center, and emotionally charged. It shocked critics and was considered un-American when it was released but ultimately influenced generations of photographers to come. One of the stories that has always stuck with me that Frank shares about his trip was the very formative moment Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was arrested—suspected simply for being a foreigner with a camera and a New York license plate. In jail, he spoke with a Black man also detained, likely for something just as arbitrary and under some bullish*t Jim Crow law. The man showed him kindness, and the encounter left a lasting mark. Though Frank didn’t photograph that moment, it seeped into the emotional current of The Americans—a body of work not just about looking, but about really seeing the complicated soul of us as country. As I look at the book today to prepare of the podcast, I am still struck at how much of what Frank was photographing thematically in the 1950's are the same issues we face today. They might have a different look, but we still are dealing with racism, loneliness, consumerism and what it means to be better to each other.