Robert Frank is one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century because of his masterpiece, “The Americans.” Born in 1924 in Switzerland to middle-class Swiss Jewish parents, Frank became an incredibly prominent figure in photography. Robert Frank’s father, Hermann, was a successful and well-educated businessman, who was also an amateur photographer and interested in art, and his mother, Regina, was the daughter of an affluent factory owner. [3] After graduating high school, Frank became Herman Segesser’s apprentice. The following year, he became a professional commercial photographer, shooting for Switzerland’s magazines, newspapers, and the book publishing industry. [3] Frank then left commercial photography as it was limiting his creativity and skills, leading him to travel to Europe and then immigrated to the United States when he was 23 years old, where he took many photographs as he traveled across the country, which led to the publication of “The Americans” in 1958. In “The Americans,” Frank carefully chose 83 photographs to show his interpretation of America, displaying what he believed to be a part of American life and culture. [4] Frank photographed as an outsider looking in on America. Frank’s Jewish and immigrant background allowed him to see America from a different perspective than others, allowing him to see America under its facade. [7] He saw both the exciting and romanticized themes of America as well as the downsides and hardships, such as segregation and loneliness. In my project, I will replicate “The Americans” and take pictures of what I believe American life and culture to be like in the 21st century. Since Frank published “The Americans,” American lives have changed vastly due to the civil, LGBT, and women’s rights movements and new technologies such as computers and the internet. I will construct my modern-day version of Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” displaying my thoughts on American life. 

 

To demonstrate American life and culture, I displayed America’s leisure activities. In Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” he photographs a drive-in movie theater as this was a new concept that he was fascinated with, whereas, in mine, I photographed people attending a football game, bowling, or playing at the arcade.

“Drive in Movie – Detroit” – Robert Frank

He also photographs both men dressed the same and one person standing out of the crowd, hinting at perhaps the theme of a conforming culture and isolation. I photographed a similar theme but show the emerging proud LGBT community and other oppressed groups constantly under attack.

“City Fathers – Hoboken, New Jersey” – Robert Frank

“Yom Kippur – East River, New York City” – Robert Frank

I additionally photographed people in their everyday lives as Robert Frank did with this woman working in a shop while also highlighting unexposed American culture such as consumerism. In the photo of the bored woman in the diner, there is a sign above her with Santa Claus that says “Merry Christmas” next to other menu items to promote their menu and sell more food. Santa Claus is one of the most prominent consumer figures as Christmas has become a holiday about gifts rather than spending time with family in America. Companies abuse Christmas time with advertisements to sell their products, and the holiday has become a significant component of our consumer economy. I hope I portrayed American consumerism in my photographs.

“Ranch Market – Hollywood” – Robert Frank

I hoped to cover most of the themes Robert Frank implemented in “The Americans” but give an updated, modern version.

To replicate Robert Frank’s photographs, I walked around Ann Arbor and photographed similar themes and objects as he did but in the modern world. I used Frank’s techniques and broke many standard photography “rules” by implementing blurriness, grains, over and under exposure, and unorthodox perspectives to convey emotion. 

Examples of this “rule-breaking” can be seen in “Movie Premiere, Hollywood,” which is a picture of a high-class woman whose face is blurred, and the viewer cannot see her eyes, which indicates the facade displayed by many people in America. The lower-class people in the back are envious of the woman in the frame, highlighting the class division in America. Frank also optimizes overexposure in “San Francisco” to take the focus away from the city landscape and onto the black couple at the bottom of the photo. Because of how he depicted America and his “rule” breaking, he received backlash from many at the time, including Practical Photography, which wrote that Frank’s photographs were a collection of “meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons, and general sloppiness.” However, Frank’s work became one of the most famous and influential photographic books.

“Movie Premiere, Hollywood” – Robert Frank

“San Francisco” – Robert Frank

I will use one example to explain how I will display Robert Frank’s photography style. I used Frank’s underexposure method to display loneliness and ominousness, a common theme in Frank’s photographs. I did my take on one of his photographs, where I took a picture of a house at night, using a car as the foreground, as Frank includes many automobiles in his photographs. The light is shining through the second-floor window, but no one can be seen, as if someone is hiding. I tried to use the tree to hide the light on the first floor and underexposure to bring the viewer’s focus to the window and the door. I used this photograph because it conveys the idea that people spend more time in their homes now than ever due to the advancement of technology, allowing people to hide and isolate themselves from the outside world.

“Salt Lake City, Utah” – Robert Frank

 “Ann Arbor, Michigan” – Matthew Solar

Gallery:

 

Selected Photos:

Slideshow 1:

Slideshow 2:

Although I did not have the opportunity to travel across the United States and take pictures throughout the day like Frank, I tried to display American culture in the one week I had to take photographs in Ann Arbor. I mostly photographed with my iPhone as it was easier to photograph something that caught my eye quickly. It also allowed me to focus more on the photo’s meaning rather than obsessing over sharpness and technical elements. Like Robert Frank, I tried to photograph in a meaningful, documentative style, making my photos have both a connotative and denotative meaning, being “both objective and subjective at the same time.” [1]

When I began taking photographs, I struggled to match Frank’s style. For two years, I was solely focused on wildlife photography, and I was incredibly set on all of the ‘rules’ such as the rule of thirds, being eye-level with the animal, shooting at sunrise, sunset, or in overcast weather, and obsessing over the sharpness of the animal in the image. In the image of the two wood ducks below, I strictly followed these rules, shooting during ‘Golden Hour’ at eye level and having the ducks perfectly centered in the photograph. I also did some commercial photography by taking pictures of dogs for their owners for money, such as the one below, where I was again at eye level and paid close attention to the negative space within the photograph. I had to force myself to throw all these rules out of the window to replicate Frank’s style. I was unfamiliar with documentative photography, which made this project incredibly difficult for me. Although I struggled, I began to focus more on the subject of the photograph rather than the means of taking the photograph to make for more meaningful images. Richard Meyer, in “Learning from Low Culture,” stated that “the story shapes the visual form of the photograph, not the other way around. When these priorities are reversed… the result is ‘arty’ rather than genuine art.” [2] By focusing more on the actual subject of the photo and the message behind the photograph, I grew as a photographer and a person.

“Breakfast”

“Morning Fun”

I, like Robert Frank, was photographing America as an outsider looking in at the United States. As an LGBT Jew, I have always felt like an outsider. I have never felt particularly close to any community. The Jewish community is split on the issue of homosexual relationships as the third book of the Torah, Leviticus states that “if a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” It is difficult to consider myself part of the Jewish community when the Torah writes that I should be dead. 

One theme of America I tried to discover was isolation and loneliness. When I was at my friend’s small house party, I took a picture of a young adult on his phone. He was sitting on a stack of wood planks texting someone and seemed despondent and alone. Later I spoke with him and found out that he was gay, and we discussed how it is to be gay in today’s world. Although most people are under the impression that LGBT no longer live in adversity in America, it is very untrue. We spoke about how our life has been affected by being homosexual and learned that his parents would not be supportive of him if they knew of his preference. Knowing that your parents would not love you and would cut off all connection with you just because you preferred being with a male rather than a female is horrible. This picture meant a great deal to me, as LGBT rights are one of the biggest problems in the United States, yet it is swept under the rug.

“On the Phone – Ann Arbor, Michigan

Another photograph I took was at the University of Michigan football game against Michigan State University. College football and sports, in general, have become a major part of America and its consumer culture. Over 110,000 people attended this football game to see their favorite players. Although football games are fun events, many athletes are idolized and immensely influence people throughout America. Many players abuse this leverage to spread misinformation and propaganda to their blind following. An excellent example is Kyrie Irving, who advocated for people to watch an anti-Semitic movie that denied the Holocaust as well as Kanye West who “loves Hitler” and posted a Swatstika on his Twitter account [8,9].

This photograph stood out to me because of the wide variety of facial expressions. Some people are screaming in excitement or upset while paying attention to the game, whereas others look uninterested and are looking in different directions. The chaos of this image greatly appealed to me as it metaphorically depicts the contrast of America: There are those who believe and follow anything they are told online by their favorite star or politician and those who see logic and always question what they see, never conforming to popular opinion.

Robert Frank’s documentative photography style in portraying Americans made me reflect on the current state and issues in America today. American lives have been bettered vastly due to the civil, LGBT, and women’s rights movements and new technologies such as computers and the internet, but many issues still have not been fully solved. Racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hate persist and are worsened through the spread of misinformation on the internet. Additionally, although the internet is known for connecting people across the globe, it can also isolate people from one another and allow people to hide in their own little world. As I worked on this project, I learned a lot about myself and the current state of America. Through this project, I grew not only as a photographer but also as a person.

1. Orvell, Miles. American Photography. Oxford University Press, 2004. 
2. Lee, Anthony W, and Meyer, Richard W. Weegee and Naked City. University of California Press, 2008. 
3. “Artist Biography: Robert Frank.” National Gallery of Art, https://www.nga.gov/press/backgrounder/bio-robertfrank.html. 
4. “Robert Frank.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Frank. 
5. “Robert Frank.” International Photography Hall of Fame, https://iphf.org/inductees/robert-frank/. 
6. “Artist Biography: Robert Frank.” National Gallery of Art, https://www.nga.gov/press/backgrounder/bio-robertfrank.html. 
7. Dawidoff, Nicholas. “The Man Who Saw America.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 July 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/robert-franks-america.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article. 
8. Mahoney, Brian. “NBA’s Kyrie Irving Suspended for Antisemitic Social Media Post, Apologizes.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 4 Nov. 2022, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/nbas-kyrie-irving-suspended-for-antisemitic-social-media-post-apologizes. 
9. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/musk-confirms-twitter-has-suspended-rapper-ye-after-swastika-post
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAVs_fJjAQ&ab_channel=TheArtofPhotography
11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX-ZvUsCWp0&ab_channel=FrederikTrovatten
12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kMwnmrL5FM&ab_channel=SanFranciscoMuseumofModernArt

Robert Frank