ARTH1100 History of Photography S2017

The short video “In Unseen Photos, A clearer Picture of Robert Frank’s America” by KQED shows a brief description of the exhibition in Stanford where very rare photographs taken by Robert Frank were showcased but weren’t in his very well-known book, The Americans. The themes of the photographs shown in the exhibition varied from simple to political or even bleak. Frank showed Americans as boring, uninterested people who were living a very usual life yet he repeatedly took portraits of them because they are “the building block of society” as described by Peter Galassi. Some of his photographs seemed meaningless but when you think back to the time they were taken, they told stories of history. One of those photos was taken of an African-American woman holding a white child. He later explained how he couldn’t understand how a white southern lady would trust her child with a black woman but wouldn’t sit and eat next to her. Frank showed interest in the south through his photographs that were taken before the Civil Rights movement, many of his photographs were focused on racism. I believe that Frank’s photography is very artistic because, despite the fact that you could feel the racism or the sense of raw photographs, there’s always a sense of question that comes to mind when studying his photographs, because they show an incomplete story.

I find the themes addressed in Robert Franks photography to be artistic, bleak and political. When watching the video on the exhibit at Stanford University’s Cantor Center and the photographs from The Americans as well as photos that didn’t make it into the book, I realized the ideas Frank had. Frank took a journey across the country to get an idea of what everyone in America was experiencing after World War II. He attempted to capture moments of people’s everyday lives. Although his photographs were bleak, they held very deep meaning. Many of them involved race and how people of different color lived amongst each other before the civil rights movement. There were also many political photos that showed people as a group holding up the American flag. The people were shown either cheering or listening to what must be a higher figure. I believe franks work is very artistic because he uses methods that are so simple but so in depth. All of his pictures leave people thinking, either wanting to know more or trying to figure out the situation. I find it very interesting that there are certain moments captured by Robert Frank are very questionable. In particular, the photograph with a dark skin women holding white infant. In the video, the curator explains that Frank couldn’t understand why a white woman can trust the black women to watch her child but wouldn’t sit next to her at a diner or on a bus. This question will always be relevant and will remain unanswered.

After watching the short video of  Robert Frank “The America”,  I found his work eccentric and amazing . The reason for this is since Frank captures Americans doing ordinary task in their  daily routine. Every person in the picture is either bored and disinterested with the environment their in but seem to have strong pride for their country. Frank is often political with some of  the pictures he takes of Americans since he wants to show the life of people who are often ignored by society. For example, African Americans under the Jim crow law in America  during 1950’s.  It was weird to Frank since he never knew people were so hateful towards people of color.  One of the pictures which shows  Franks confusion was a photo he took of  a African american women holding onto a Caucasian baby.  Frank never understood why  people will trust their kids with individuals they loathe or wouldn’t talk to.  Almost all of  the pictures in Robert Frank’s  “The America” is of Americans being bleak. Frank often took photos of individuals waving american flags being cheerful in events, but later on in the day they are lonely and bored.  This shows the audience of how little Americans  enjoy the place they live in and how it contradicts their nationalistic altitude for America. Overall, Robert Frank is a great photographer who captured the truth of american  bleak lifestyle.

In the “In Unseen Photos, A Clearer Picture of Robert Frank’s America” by KQED Arts, Exhibits a variety of photographs that have never seen the light of day by Robert Frank. The photographs shown are ones that never made it into his well known book The Americans. The Photos that were exhibited all share a similar themes of loneliness in social situations, political endeavors after a war, nationalism, and race in the south. The photographs themselves have great composition and show a feeling of just somber nights out in the town. They evoke a certain feeling of complacency in life where sometimes you’re just somewhere and you’re not sure where to go or what to do next. In the other photographs, depicting strong influences of nationalism and political gatherings, you see a lot of passion being shown that people genuinely care and would die for their country. The enthusiasm in several of the photographs depict a lot pride after the war and a feeling of celebration. In the other photographs such as the ones depicting the racially segregated south, show a particular image where a black woman is taking care of a white baby which in itself is very odd considering white people in this time were often repulsed by the thought of sitting next to a black person let alone letting their child being taken care by a black woman. It really shows the backward south in all of its glory in those days.

After analyzing both the image of Robert Capa “Death of a Loyalist Soldier” and Whelan’s argument about thus photograph not only can one assume that the photograph is staged, but someone looking at this photograph should be convinced that it is staged. There are several reasons that I say this, the first one being how unemotional the face of the man in the photograph is. The second reason is that there is no blood, if the soldier is wounded and falling backwards why is there no blood on his clothes. Lastly, if one were to get shot and be falling backwards wouldn’t they let go of their gun? With that all said, I believe the authenticity of a photo matters because after watching a video of how Henri Cartier- Bresson’s views on photography it made me realize just how important the timing is to every great photograph and that if you don’t time something right, you cannot just recreate a photograph.

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Robert Capa’s “the death of a loyalist soldier” or also known as the falling soldier is a great piece of art, this photograph looks like if it was staged but then suddenly it became reality when a sniper from the rival unit took a shot and it was captured by the Photographer Robert Capa. One of the reason this photo is so famous because this was the first time when someone captured a person getting killed on camera, before it was not possible due to the long exposure time of the cameras. After reading Richard Whelan reflection on the photograph I am certain that this photo was staged because of the way he points out everything in so much detail and no one will place the gun away from him while others are shooting at him and after reading the post and examining the photo To me this photograph was very much like Alexander Gardners, Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter. It was staged the same way as the gardners was staged with a gun on the side of  rebels body .