Homework #4 -Robert Frank’s The Americans

After viewing the video on Robert Frank and the rarely seen photographs from the Americans, I feel Frank really captured how bleak and isolating life was like for the American people after WWII. The Americans, primarily focuses on the simple, mundane tasks of everyday life of the American people. While there aren’t many-if any-photographs that truly stood out, there were a few that caught my attention. Firstly it was a photograph of people, simply eating at a dinner. The photograph wasn’t anything special, but giving it a closer look what surprised me was how depressing everyone looked. They were isolated, even thought they were siting right next to each other. It sort of made me think of today’s life and how people are isolated when they are on their cellphones. However, in Frank’s photograph the environment felt more toxic, more somber than it does today. Another photograph that stood out to me was a picture of a black woman taking care of a white child. The reason this stood out to me was because during this time there was segregation. So this picture showed like the follicles with in the American ideology of that time. Like it was fine for black people to raise their children but having any other form of contact is strictly forbidden. Which makes absolutely no sense.