Homework 4

Robert Frank was an extraordinary photographer in my opinion. He depicted America in a way that is unique through his photographs. Like Peter Galassi said, “the people often look distracted or bored”, and Frank was able to capture how the Americans felt with his photographs. Frank’s theme for photography was ordinary people, religion, politics and building block of society. Frank who lives in the South was never racially profiled. However, Frank was bothered by the racial segregation that was going on at the time. In one of the photographs that Frank took, it was a black woman holding a white baby. The context behind the photograph was that Frank was confused as to why “a white southern woman would entrust their baby to the care of a black woman but wouldn’t sit next to them at the lunch counter.” This shows the compassion that Frank exhibits through his many photographs. Aside from his politic photography, Frank develops a new style of photography where he isolates two individuals that seem to tell a story through their emotions. As Galassi said, Frank was “trying to understand the whole country” and how individuals relate with the country with his photographs. I feel that’s what makes his photography interesting.