While taking time to sit down and really look at “The Americans” by Robert Frank I picked up many little things in his work that I have not noticed before. I value his use of diverse and interesting use of angles while still maintaining a simple look in his pictures. This is something I did not notice the first time I looked at “The Americans”. Although his pictures appear to be very simple, many of them are from all different angles. For example, the picture captioned “Political rally- Chicago” is taken from bellow. The picture captioned “U.S. 91, leaving Blackfoot, Idaho” is taken from the side, but very close up to the people in the picture. Spending this time with the book made me realize how amazing it is that Robert Frank makes his photographs look so simple, but still show such complexity in his angles, subject matter, and people.
As I was flipping through “The Americans”, I noticed five consecutive photos that stood out to me. The first one of the five is captioned “Motorama- Los Angeles”. This photo depicts two young boys sitting in the backseat of a car. If you look closely, you can also see another young boy sitting in the driver’s seat of the car. The photo is taken through the front window of the car, so the viewer is outside looking in. I think Frank used light very effectively in this photo because the outside of the car is dark, but the inside is illuminated, allowing the viewer to see a clear image of the boys’ faces. I think this image speaks about age, youth, and maturity. Although these boys are not old enough to be driving a car, they all sit in the car as if they are men driving to work. Perhaps it is meant to show that for American children, innocent play often becomes brutal reality when they grow older.
The next image is captioned “New York City”. In this photo three boys are standing in a triangle shape, each holding their body differently. One boy has his hand around his neck, another has his hand over his face, and the other has his hand on his hips. There is a sign behind them that says “Don’t Miss…” and then some words that I cannot read. This is an interesting photo because all three boys are looking directly at the camera, which is relatively rare in Frank’s photography. I think that the one boy might have even put his hand over his face in order to shield his face from the picture. I also think it is interesting that the photo before this depicted three boys as well, but much younger than the boys in this photograph. I like this picture because I really like the angles and lines of the boys’ bodies. The way they are standing says something about who they are and what they are thinking and makes for a very unique composition.
Next, is an image captioned “Charleston, South Carolina”. In this image, an African American woman leans up against a wall while holding a white baby. They appear to be outside on a sidewalk. I find this photo intriguing because of the strong contrast between the woman’s skin color and the baby’s skin color. When I saw this photo, it reminded me of the movie “The Help” because it appears as though the African American woman is the baby’s babysitter. I think this photo speaks loudly and clearly about the issues of race that were occurring during this time, and still occurs today. I think many of Frank’s photographs display issues of race in very candid, simple ways, and this photo is a perfect example of that.
The photograph after depicts a young woman who appears to be working at some sort of diner. It is captioned “Ranch market- Hollywood”. This photo is taken from bellow the women and only shows her head and the top of the diner which is filled with signs about hotdogs, Christmas, and steak sandwiches. This photo appears to be related to the last photo because both the baby in the last photo, and the woman in this photo are looking in the same direction with similar facial expressions. Perhaps this woman working in the diner is supposed to be the older version of the baby in the last picture.
The last photo in these five consecutive images is captioned “Butte, Montana”. This photo is shot from the side of a car. In the car there is an older woman looking out of the window and behind her a young girl looking out. If you look closely, you can see another woman in the window behind the young girl. This image brought me back to the first image in the five image sequence because the first image also took place in a car. However, this image shows all women in the car, is taken from a different angle, and the car appears to be cramped with not much space. While in the first image, the young boys were all looking in different directions, in this image, the women are all looking in the same direction. I think Frank chose these five photos to come right after another to perhaps say something about gender. The first two images were all boys and the last three images all depicted girls. As I mentioned earlier, I think Frank makes a statement about race in “The Americans” and when I looked closer at these five photos I realized he also makes a statement about gender inequality and norms in his photography.
As I wrote in the first paragraph, I found the angles Frank chose to take his photographs striking. This is something I think I could work on in my photobook, “The Wolverines”. I often do not think about what angle I take a photograph from and how it can affect the whole picture. But after looking through “The Americans” I realized how important angles are in photography. I also need to work on taking more close up pictures. This is scary to do especially when taking photographs of strangers, but I think some of Frank’s most interesting photographs in “The Americans” were the ones that were taken close up. This is something I am planning on working on and hope to achieve in my won photobook.
Pulse 