"Road Show: The journey of Robert Frank's 'The Americans'" by Anthony Lane 2009

This article is about Robert Frank's project "The Americans" and what his photographs revealed about our country at a time when people were not too keen to hear what he had to say.  Frank was born in Sweden, came to the U.S. after WW II, and applied for a Guggenheim grant in the 50s for his proposed project.  Upon winning the grant in 1955, he set out on a grand road trip across the U.S., spending some time with his family in California but ultimately using most of his time to travel back and forth across many states, accumulating tens of thousands of photographs.  

Robert Frank, Parade--Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955

People were initially antagonistic towards Frank's work, seeing it as critical of America, whereas Frank approached his work through the lens of discovery and a recording of all that he saw.  His work was honest, not necessarily critical or complimentary.  Revealing a lot about social issues during that time, Frank took many photos portraying the African American experience and his pictures did not shy away from other issues such as class disparity and the working class experience.  Frank's work is most important in its blatant honesty and its subtle portrait of a country. 

Robert Frank, Charleston, South Carolina, 1955

Robert Frank, U.S. 285, New Mexico, 1955