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I graduated from college during this period. It isn't about the narrative and black and white makes the subjects stand out. Some believed race issues were a problem.
One of the photos is misidentified as to place. There is a newspaper stand in one of the photos. Several others have explanations different from my assessment.
This collection of photos didn't attract much attention when first published. The collection captures the time nicely. Who is on the cover of Look.
Don't think so. The photos then would have been ordinary scenes in black and white during a period when most photos were color.
I had not heard of Robert Frank until recently. Composition is excellent. His photographic work, however, is excellent. Robert Frank's pictures of America in the 1950s are comparable in depth and perceptiveness to Dorothea Lange's pictures of the 1930s. They are in black and white and call you back to look at them again and again.
And WATCH OUT -- for some reason, there are real con artists charging $150 and more even though this book can be bought NEW for less than $40. This is an outstanding collection of photographs. The drawbacks: The book's trim size (height & width) is surprisingly small for a collection of photographs.
It was a message that was sure to win him applause from Europeans and also from that portion of the American intelligentsia who take European judgements as final.I think Frank's photos are highly overrated and took little insight or understanding to create. and photographed pretty much what he was looking for: visual proof that Americans and their culture are crass, materialist, full of prejudice, and vulgar.This view has been a commonplace conceit of European artists and intellectuals, and it began even before the colonies had united to become the United States. They reflect mostly a typical European viewpoint and show almost no understanding of what this country and its people are really about. I'm not as impressed with this book as most critics are. Frank traveled around the U.S.
I think every young photographer should own and study this book. Robert Frank changed the world of photography with this collection of work.
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