ARTH1100 History of Photography S2017

After viewing the video about Robert Franks photography, I believe that he’s very artistic in a unique way.  Aside from that, I still think that many of his images are quite political. Although, his intentional was to capture “the people of America”, some of his pictures still somehow show a historical context depending on how you interpret it. For example, one of his famous photos in the cover of “The Americans” would typically show a daily lifestyle according to Robert Frank. But many other people viewed it in a political perspective  because the image shows how colored people were sitting on the back of the bus meanwhile the non-colored sat on the front of the bus. Thus, that shows segregation and during the 1950’s, there was racial segregation going on. What also I found amusing about Robert Franks picture’s was that he plays around with blur and focuses on a certain person or people and blurs everything else. It shows us a story and tells us what the image is focusing on.

Without Robert Franks photography, we probably wouldn’t have much historical images about racial segregation back in the 1950’s.  It’s a good thing that there’s a current exhibit that dedicates all of his work.

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.

Robert Franks “The Americans” collection is very powerful in such a way that it shows his views on society.  Robert Franks was from Switzerland so he was not too familiar with colored people, at the time he went to the south. Now at the time racial segregation was going on and there’s this photograph that’s in the Cantors Art center that Frank took that its very interesting. In his photograph, he shows how a colored woman is holding a white baby and he just couldn’t understand how a white woman from the south would trust a colored woman with her baby in which a white woman at the time would not even sit next to colored people. It’s a very powerful photo especially during the Civil War. I find Franks photographs a mix of artistic and political because he shows his views on social issues yet he doesn’t show it straight forward but he composes a photograph that’s makes the audience decide what he is really trying to show. Now Frank has more photos other than the ones in The Americans. Frank was trying to show how his passion through his photographs. Franks collections shows very strong and symbolic photography.

After watching the short video on a recent exhibition at Stanford University’s Cantor Center for Visual Arts in which the exhibition highlighted Robert Frank’s seminal photography book The Americans (1958) and also the photographs that didn’t make it into the publication. The themes that were addressed in Frank’s photographs I found them to be artistic, bleak and political because they were photographs that each had at least one of these themes present. In addition, Frank took these types of photographs because America was bleak and the people in the photographs looked distracted or were bored/alienated since the United States was victorious in World War II. One of the photographs that was shown in the short video was a black woman holding a white baby and taking care of it and the curator Peter Galassi pointed out how when Frank took this photograph Frank couldn’t understand why a white woman would leave their baby to be taken care of by a black woman and trust the black woman. However, the white woman wouldn’t sit with the black woman at the lunch counter which really shocked Frank and showed the racial segregation because during this time where there was a lot of racism between the whites and people of color which eventually led to the Civil Rights Movement. In the end, Robert Frank as a photographer was able to capture the lifestyle of the Americans and as well give a sense of the country at the time.

After watching the short video on a recent exhibition that highlighted Robert Frank’s seminal photography book The Americans and the photographs that didn’t make into the publication.  I found out that Frank’s photographs are artistic, bleak and also political in particular way. He showed that Americans were mostly distracted and bored. when came to a photograph showing that a black woman holding a white baby, the curator had mentioned that Frank didn’t understand why a white woman trusted the black woman and let her holding her baby after he went to the South. above that, Frank also took a photograph that showed many people with different colors on the street. these told us that people were racist at that time period before civil right movement. In all, Frank was trying to give a sense of the country. He was trying to understand how people were related to the country and as a whole

After watching the short video ”The American ” by Robert Frank, the most of his photography I felt was artistic, bleak and also political. Many photograph of Robert Frank reflect how the daily people live in America after the world war II. From the picture, you can see that the bleak society the people live in and they were facing unfair treatment or they didn’t have same equal right because their race issue. In addition, from the tour of exhibition by peter Galassi, he mentioned that the serious problem “ racial segregation” before the civil movement. One political photo was surprise me, the African-American women was holding a white baby. However, Frank also confused how come the white American women could trust the African-American women to take care of her baby, but wouldn’t have a dinner next to her or on the bus. In conclusion, Frank’s photograph shows that how bleak society the different race people lived in and  how their feeling because they were facing the problem that didn’t have same equal right as the white people have.

After watching the video on Robert Frank and the rarely seen photographs from the Americans, I felt Robert Frank’s photographs were somewhat bleak and political and mainly artistic. Frank took these photos which also showed how life was after world war two. The book generally focuses on the average everyday life of people in America at that time. The curator Peter Galassi introduces photos of people who in which he mentions that America looks bleak and people seem distracted and bored. The picture which shows an African American woman holding a baby was surprising which involved people of different color living amongst each other. The curator says Frank didn’t understand why the white woman can trust the black woman with her child, but not sit with her at a table. Frank’s photographs were also artistic because the photos did manage to tell some story and have a meaning as well as the inspiration that Frank had to take these photographs. Some of Frank’s photos show a political view in which people are showing their pride and are holding American flags. Robert Frank is a great photographer who managed to capture American’s lifestyle and give a sense of the country at that time.