Web Work 6- Robert Frank

I like Robert Franks photography, because they have a profound purpose. He is telling a message through his photographs, and showing the American life or perhaps the American dream from the view of a camera. This seems to show us things that we would not normally take notice of. His images make a bold and this caused some controversy.

Robert was born in Switzerland in 1924, and moved to New York in 1947. He started working a s a commercial photographer, but he did not enjoy this type of work. He then spent his time wandering around New York photographing anything that appeased him. When his noncommercial work started to get noticed he got a grant, bought a ford and in 1955 began traveling. He went places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Arkansas. After a year and a half of work, he choose 83 final images. His book The American was published in 1959, so his photographs from this book were taken in the 1950's. His book of photos was different then other images of it's time in the fact that they weren't exactly showing or promoting the American dream. He didn't get much support from the art world early on, Frank himself stated " The museum of Modern Art wouldn't even sell the book, but the younger people caught on (NRP)." Although his Americans collection began to gain relevance, the year the book came out, he stopped photographing and began making his first film.