Posts Tagged ‘The Americans’

In 1959, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank published The Americans, a photo book that revealed a powerful documentation of post-war American life. It successfully reproduced the cultural angst, alienation, and loneliness of the time and is still considered to be one of the most important photography books since World War II.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of its original publication, MOCA is celebrating this text with an exhibit titled Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” displaying Frank’s complete portfolio in the identical order as he originally saw fit.

Most of us are familiar with the post-war Beat Generation movement of the 1960s and its front man  Jack Kerouac. He is most famous for a little migratory novel titled On the Road, which he wrote during a trans-American road trip he took in April 1951. What most people don’t know is that it took Kerouac three — yes, only three (albeit productive) — months to complete his final manuscript.

It took Frank a little longer than Kerouac to complete and record his road trip across the US.  Two years and 20,000 negatives later, Frank produced his final product. We should note, Frank and Kerouac were not in cahoots with each other regarding their respective works, but it is clear that they were both inspired by the static energy of the time. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Kerouac himself wrote the introduction to Frank’s English edition of The Americans.  Appropriately enough, Kerouac’s introductory words are displayed in the forward of MOCA’s show. Kerouac writes, “After seeing these pictures you end up finally not knowing whether a jukebox is sadder than a coffin.” It is with these words that the viewer is introduced to Frank’s collection of poignant images.

All 83 black and white photographs highlight various mundane objects like cars, diners, and roads, which Frank used to symbolically represent contemporary post-war life. His use of a hand-held Leica camera and a wide-angle lens gave his photographs a controversial and — in the long run — influential style, accurately capturing the world that surrounded him.

The photographs have a certain sad, suspended quality to them. They capture a postponement of daily life spanning across America’s heartland, making the collection feel, if nothing else, uncompromisingly complete. Especially at the present time when the US is once again undergoing a certain depressed cultural revolution, Frank’s recession-like photographs remind us of what was, what is, and everything that came between. The nostalgic ‘tough-times’ nature of the collection is peculiar. Granted, they are a nice revisiting, but they don’t encourage us to go back in time — the grayness in these photographs has little to do with the fact that they’re in black and white.

–By Andrea F. Pagliai

The collection will be at MOCA until October 19th, 2009. The best time to visit is certainly Thursdays, as the gallery stays open till late and admission is FREE!  For more information, please click here or call: 213.626.6222.

Image courtesy of MOCA