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The Americans
Previously published in 1959, Frank's most famous and influential photography book contained a series of deceptively simple photos that he took on a trip through America in 1955 and 1956. These pictures of everyday people still speak to us today, 40 years and several generations later.
179 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Robert Frank
64 books90 followersRobert Frank was a photographer and filmmaker.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 225 reviews
December 15, 2023
Looking In
In 1955 - 1956, Robert Frank (b. 1924), an American photographer born in Switzerland, restlessly crossed the United States several times by car to photograph people and places as he found them. He gradually culled through thousands of photographs to select 83 images for his book, "The Americans" published initially in Paris in 1958 and in the United States in 1959 by Grove Press. In its initial publication, "The Americans" sold only 600 copies and received negative reviews. Its stature has grown with time. The book is now an American classic.
The United States publication of "The Americans" included an introduction by Frank's friend, Jack Kerouac, which had earlier been rejected by the French publisher. Frank did well in asking Kerouac to write the introduction. Years earlier, Kerouac had made a series of mad journeys across the United States resulting in his famous novel, "On the Road." Kerouac's book shows more of a romantic spirit than the unsentimental photographs taken by his friend. Kerouac's introduction captures the spirit of Frank's photographs and of Frank's portrayal of America and offers comments on several individual photos. It deserves its place as part of Frank's masterwork.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the book, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. presented a major exhibition of Frank's work, titled "Looking In" which included the 83 photographs of "The Americans" presented in the order of Frank's book, together with other photographs that Frank took, including many photographs he took while he crossed America that did not make their way into the book. I was fortunate to visit the exhibition yesterday to see the photographs first hand. The National Gallery of Art has also published an encyclopedic version of Frank's book, "Looking In" which is large and expensive and includes much material in addition to Frank's now iconic collection of 83 photographs. My review here is of Frank's initial collection with Kerouac's introduction. The book is much less expensive than the reissue, is easier to handle, and provides the original version of Frank's masterpiece.
Frank's pictures do indeed draw the view into the scenes he depicts. The photographs include men and women, whites and blacks, rich and poor. The photographs show a certain loneliness, isolation, and unhappiness, regardless of social class. Thus, there are photographs of a lovely young woman operating an elevator, and of a hard-faced young woman behind a restaurant counter staring fixedly at the viewer. There is a photograph of a wealthy couple in Miami, of lavishly dressed gamblers at a Nevada casino, and of the elegant guests at a New York City cocktail party, drinks in hand, to benefit a school of art. Frank shows a segregated bus in New Orleans, and a scene of a stoic African American nurse holding a white baby in South Carolina. He photographs places, as well, a bar in Detroit, a collection of rubbish in the back yard of a Los Angeles home, that reminded me of works by Charles Bukowski, and the starkness of a men's bathroom and shoeshine stand - which Kerouac described as a place where the ladies don't go.
The photographs suggest the fascination of American's with their cars - one of the best works in the collection is the picture of the dividing strip of an open road at moonlight. They also show the fascination of many American's with the products of Hollywood - with starlets, cowboys, and television - together with the inauthenticity and emptiness of these concerns. Politicians, such as the photograph of the "city fathers" of Hoboken, New Jersey early in the collection, and of wheeling-dealing. cigar-smoking delegates at the Democratic Party's Presidential convention in 1956 (all men) come across as arrogant, crude, and ignorant. Many of the photographs are draped with flags, or other symbols, and many include comments on American religion, from an African American preacher who traveled up and down the Mississippi River for years to bring people to God, to the crosses, churches, and calls to repentance that dot the American landscape, to orthodox American Jews at the banks of the East River on Yom Kippur casting their sins into the water.
For all the melancholy, loneliness, and shallowness they convey, Frank's photographs show an understanding of the United States and a love of its people and places. His photographs of young people capture the alienation that has become commonplace since the 1950s, but also the search for love and meaning. His photographs capture the breadth of the United States, the difficulties of race relations, and the feelings of desolation, conformity, and tension, as people strive for financial security.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see Frank's photographs themselves at the National Gallery. This book of Frank's 83 photographs, together with Kerouac's words, offers the reader the opportunity to share, return to, and reflect upon Frank's photographic vision.
Robin Friedman
In 1955 - 1956, Robert Frank (b. 1924), an American photographer born in Switzerland, restlessly crossed the United States several times by car to photograph people and places as he found them. He gradually culled through thousands of photographs to select 83 images for his book, "The Americans" published initially in Paris in 1958 and in the United States in 1959 by Grove Press. In its initial publication, "The Americans" sold only 600 copies and received negative reviews. Its stature has grown with time. The book is now an American classic.
The United States publication of "The Americans" included an introduction by Frank's friend, Jack Kerouac, which had earlier been rejected by the French publisher. Frank did well in asking Kerouac to write the introduction. Years earlier, Kerouac had made a series of mad journeys across the United States resulting in his famous novel, "On the Road." Kerouac's book shows more of a romantic spirit than the unsentimental photographs taken by his friend. Kerouac's introduction captures the spirit of Frank's photographs and of Frank's portrayal of America and offers comments on several individual photos. It deserves its place as part of Frank's masterwork.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the book, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. presented a major exhibition of Frank's work, titled "Looking In" which included the 83 photographs of "The Americans" presented in the order of Frank's book, together with other photographs that Frank took, including many photographs he took while he crossed America that did not make their way into the book. I was fortunate to visit the exhibition yesterday to see the photographs first hand. The National Gallery of Art has also published an encyclopedic version of Frank's book, "Looking In" which is large and expensive and includes much material in addition to Frank's now iconic collection of 83 photographs. My review here is of Frank's initial collection with Kerouac's introduction. The book is much less expensive than the reissue, is easier to handle, and provides the original version of Frank's masterpiece.
Frank's pictures do indeed draw the view into the scenes he depicts. The photographs include men and women, whites and blacks, rich and poor. The photographs show a certain loneliness, isolation, and unhappiness, regardless of social class. Thus, there are photographs of a lovely young woman operating an elevator, and of a hard-faced young woman behind a restaurant counter staring fixedly at the viewer. There is a photograph of a wealthy couple in Miami, of lavishly dressed gamblers at a Nevada casino, and of the elegant guests at a New York City cocktail party, drinks in hand, to benefit a school of art. Frank shows a segregated bus in New Orleans, and a scene of a stoic African American nurse holding a white baby in South Carolina. He photographs places, as well, a bar in Detroit, a collection of rubbish in the back yard of a Los Angeles home, that reminded me of works by Charles Bukowski, and the starkness of a men's bathroom and shoeshine stand - which Kerouac described as a place where the ladies don't go.
The photographs suggest the fascination of American's with their cars - one of the best works in the collection is the picture of the dividing strip of an open road at moonlight. They also show the fascination of many American's with the products of Hollywood - with starlets, cowboys, and television - together with the inauthenticity and emptiness of these concerns. Politicians, such as the photograph of the "city fathers" of Hoboken, New Jersey early in the collection, and of wheeling-dealing. cigar-smoking delegates at the Democratic Party's Presidential convention in 1956 (all men) come across as arrogant, crude, and ignorant. Many of the photographs are draped with flags, or other symbols, and many include comments on American religion, from an African American preacher who traveled up and down the Mississippi River for years to bring people to God, to the crosses, churches, and calls to repentance that dot the American landscape, to orthodox American Jews at the banks of the East River on Yom Kippur casting their sins into the water.
For all the melancholy, loneliness, and shallowness they convey, Frank's photographs show an understanding of the United States and a love of its people and places. His photographs of young people capture the alienation that has become commonplace since the 1950s, but also the search for love and meaning. His photographs capture the breadth of the United States, the difficulties of race relations, and the feelings of desolation, conformity, and tension, as people strive for financial security.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see Frank's photographs themselves at the National Gallery. This book of Frank's 83 photographs, together with Kerouac's words, offers the reader the opportunity to share, return to, and reflect upon Frank's photographic vision.
Robin Friedman
June 25, 2018
First published in 1959, The Americans captures the nation at its plainest moments. Following Walker Evans, the FSA photographer who documented the Great Depression's effects upon small town life, Robert Frank took interest in the painfully ordinary: his collection consists of several black-and-white photographs of mundane scenes, bleak landscapes, and harsh portraits. Frank's strenuous emphasis upon the simple makes each of his photos appear a bit lackluster when viewed individually, while it also lends his work as a whole an electrifying sense of severity and directness. Viewed in sequence, Frank's barren photos express a great deal more than they at first seem capable of doing.
May 24, 2021
Robert Frank, a Jewish-Swiss immigrant, saw his new country in the 1950s through the lenses of a simple 35mm camera and his perceptive humanity. While criticized in the mainstream popular magazines at the time of its publication in 1959, it turned out to be prophetic for what was to come in the turbulent 1960s. Now hailed as a classic in the history of American photography, it's not only a work of the artistic master, but also a keen eye looking at the faces of segregation, alienated youth across America, social loneliness, the privileged, the desolate, ... The quiet edge of his social commentary through black-and-white images was admired by Kerouac, who wrote the introduction, and others from the Beat generation. He turned to avant-garde film-making afterwards, only occasionally doing photography for the rest of his life. But his spirit never extinguished. Here is his commissioned video for Patti Smith's Summer Cannibals at the age of 70!
Parade (Hoboken, New Jersey)
New York City
Trolley (New Orleans) [this photo of a segregated trolley has gained the cult status by now, it was taken only one month before Rosa Parks' historic bus protest]
Cockatil party (New York City)
Cafeteria (San Francisco)
Coffee shop, railway station (Indianapolis)
Parade (Hoboken, New Jersey)
New York City
Trolley (New Orleans) [this photo of a segregated trolley has gained the cult status by now, it was taken only one month before Rosa Parks' historic bus protest]
Cockatil party (New York City)
Cafeteria (San Francisco)
Coffee shop, railway station (Indianapolis)
June 27, 2009
This is one of my favorite pics from Robert Frank's collection of photos in his classic "The Americans." It's a beautiful chronicle of America in 1955-1956. It's obvious that Frank liked capturing faces, expressions, moods. The introduction was written by Jack Kerouac, where he romanticizes about the American road, as seen through Frank's lens. There are so many great pics, "Drug store-Detroit" being another of my favorites. The one above is titled, "Barber shop through screen door - McClellanville, South Carolina." I love pictures that have a lot of layers, and here you can see the photographer, what is behind him, and what is in front of him. I really like photos with refraction and reflections of images, without the use of mirrors. Here's another one I like, with the little baby, the towering jukebox, the empty room, and light streaming in from the windows...titled "Café in Beaufort, South Carolina":
A really beautiful collection, a book you can peruse for hours...and it makes a wonderful gift, thanks P! :)
September 26, 2010
To quote Kerouac from his intro, "To Robert Frank I now give this message: You got eyes."
These are wonderful timeless images. A classic work to be savored.
These are wonderful timeless images. A classic work to be savored.
September 11, 2019
I heard this morning that the photographer Robert Frank died two days ago, and that got me to look at this book. It is his most famous work. Though it was first published in 1958, I think it still stands up as a great book. He broke some technical “rules” such as chopping an arm of a man in one of the shots while leaving space on the other side of the woman he is with, there are photos that are slightly blurred because they are taken at such low shutter speeds, and people that feel they “need” 100 mega pixel cameras because 25 mega pixels are not sharp enough, will most likely find these photos very grainy.
But it doesn’t matter. He got the essentials right, and made strong pictures. The pictures are rough, like street, and documentary photographs often can become, because the focus is more on getting the feel of the place, the situation, the moment, and that is more important than staying technically perfect. Now, I don’t know how well he captured 1950s America, and I suppose no book will ever be able to capture a whole nation in a few shots, but he presented a very consistent, strong artistic vision with this work.
In short, I think this is still an interesting work from many different perspectives. In some sense it is a political work, but in another it’s just a comment on the different lives people lead. A lot of these photographs seem to be comments on each other, and he often makes very interesting links between photos. Anyway, I like this book. If anyone wants to hear him talk about photography, and The Americans then this is an interesting, though short, interview with him about it: https://archive.org/details/HowRobert...
But it doesn’t matter. He got the essentials right, and made strong pictures. The pictures are rough, like street, and documentary photographs often can become, because the focus is more on getting the feel of the place, the situation, the moment, and that is more important than staying technically perfect. Now, I don’t know how well he captured 1950s America, and I suppose no book will ever be able to capture a whole nation in a few shots, but he presented a very consistent, strong artistic vision with this work.
In short, I think this is still an interesting work from many different perspectives. In some sense it is a political work, but in another it’s just a comment on the different lives people lead. A lot of these photographs seem to be comments on each other, and he often makes very interesting links between photos. Anyway, I like this book. If anyone wants to hear him talk about photography, and The Americans then this is an interesting, though short, interview with him about it: https://archive.org/details/HowRobert...
September 17, 2019
As a homage to Robert Frank, who died last week at age 94 I took down this seminal book of photographs which he took on a cross country road trip in 1955-1956. The photos still affect us over 60 years later. Frank showed the dark underbelly of America with its segregation, dead-end jobs and lives...but he also shows the glamour and joy of life in these black and white pictures.
This is a magnificent book which has influenced some of the most famous photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
This is a magnificent book which has influenced some of the most famous photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
November 23, 2014
Excellent photographs by Frank; shitty, pompous, self-indulgent introduction by Kerouac.
March 21, 2023
Success of the photos of the American is not only limited to the representation of emotions of the people or on the emotional impact on somebody seeing those, not also limited to symbolisms only. There is an aspect of documentarian feature also, where the photos show different "American characters", you can get a feel for them by seeing those photos. If someone tries to describe those characters, these might turn into poems (given that everything can be described with language only). As the name goes, this is the Americans for you, photos that shows you what is to be "Americans" in the 1950s!
February 3, 2021
holy text
February 3, 2008
Frank was Swiss and got a Guggenheim grant to go ona huge roadtrip and carry this out. The American people were all looking forward to the release of the book, they thought it'd be pretty-pretty and it'd suck up to them, but no! Out it came and people were offended by it. They were offended because the eye of the outsider saw things which the Americans (not the book, the people) did not want shown. Yes, 1950's hypocrisy in its most classic form.
Well, the world has become quite different and it seems the Americans (the people) now quite appreciate the book. Not surprising, for the pictures are brilliant, both in terms of technicality, look and concept. Superb.
Well, the world has become quite different and it seems the Americans (the people) now quite appreciate the book. Not surprising, for the pictures are brilliant, both in terms of technicality, look and concept. Superb.
December 16, 2011
If Helen's face launched a thousand ships, and if the Velvet Underground record launched a million garage bands, certainly Robert Frank's dense monograph is the photographic equivalent.
Beautifully elegant images in a harsh, electrifying thematic vein.
Read through it, see into it, read it through, and try not to weep.
Beautifully elegant images in a harsh, electrifying thematic vein.
Read through it, see into it, read it through, and try not to weep.
September 26, 2020
Beautiful photos by Frank. Incomprehensible essay by Kerouac.
May 23, 2021
I came into Robert Frank kind of ass-backwards: I watched a documentary of him and read a great biography (RJ Smith's American Witness) before I looked at his seminal work. I was blown away. So emotional, such a story line—Frank was able to capture a time and place in America the way few people can. I could (and have) gone through this book over and over, and I have no doubt I will for the rest of life.
December 18, 2017
“One day, quite some time ago, I happened on a photograph of Napoleon’s youngest brother, Jerome, taken in 1852. And I realized then, with an amazement I have not been able to lessen since: ‘I am looking at eyes that looked at the Emperor.’ Sometimes I would mention this amazement, but since no one seemed to share it, nor even to understand it (life consists of these little touches of solitude), I forgot about it.”—Roland Barthes, from Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
“Anybody doesnt like these pitchers dont like potry, see? Anybody dont like potry go home see Television shots of big hatted cowboys being tolerated by kind horses.
Robert Frank, Swiss, unobtrusive, nice, with that little camera that he raises and snaps with one hand he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world.
To Robert Frank I now give this message: You got eyes.
And I say: That little ole lonely elevator girl looking up sighing in an elevator full of blurred demons, what’s her name & address?”—Jack Kerouac, from his introduction to Robert Frank’s The Americans
When the term “period piece” is mentioned, certain works come to mind: John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and even Kerouac’s own masterwork On the Road. Robert Frank’s The Americans, while very unlike the aforementioned works, is a period piece in its own right. During the time of Eisenhower, an industrial time when the nascent highway system was expanding and the car was becoming affordable for the common person, people in America were gradually gaining a greater amount of mobility, and Frank travelled around the mainland United States in an old used car on a Guggenheim Fellowship snapping photographs of the country. Frank’s photographs tell the tale of a time in the United States now long gone, and this tale includes people from all walks of life; behind every scene is a story, behind every face is a mystery, and behind every photograph is a unique glimpse of history.
I found all of the photographs in this book to be very captivating in their own idiosyncratic ways, but to attempt to describe Frank’s photographs would do them (and Frank) a disservice; instead, I’d prefer to point the readers of this review to the photographs in particular that caught my eye, in the order of their appearance in The Americans, with my favorite photographs being in bold text.
My absolute favorite photograph in the entire book, you ask? I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
“Political rally – Chicago”
“Funeral – St. Helena, South Carolina” [#1]
“Rodeo – Detroit”
“Navy Recruiting Station, Post Office – Butte, Montana”
“Movie premiere – Hollywood”
“Motorama – Los Angeles”
“New York City”
“Charleston, South Carolina”
“Ranch market — Hollywood”
“Butte, Montana”
“Yom Kippur — East River, New York City”
“Trolley — New Orleans”
“Rooming house — Bunker Hill, Los Angeles”
“Cafe — Beaufort, South Carolina”
“U.S. 30 between Ogallala and North Platte, Nebraska”
“U.S. 91, leaving Blackfoot, Idaho”
“Covered car — Long Beach, California”
“Car accident — U.S. 66, between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona”
“U.S. 285, New Mexico”
“Barber shop through screen door — McClellanville, South Carolina”
“Backyard — Venice West, California”
“Newburgh, New York”
“Luncheonette — Butte, Montana”
“Bar — New York City”
“Elevator — Miami Beach” (this is the photograph to which Kerouac was referring in the excerpt of his introduction to The Americans included above)
“Restaurant — U.S. 1 leaving Columbia, South Carolina”
“Mississippi River, Baton Rouge, Louisiana”
“St. Francis, gas station, and City Hall — Los Angeles”
“Crosses at scene of highway accident — U.S. 91, Idaho”
“Assembly line — Detroit”
“Salt Lake City, Utah”
“Beaufort, South Carolina”
“Chinese cemetery — San Francisco”
“Political rally — Chicago” [#2]
“Television studio — Burbank, California”
“Los Angeles”
“Bank — Houston, Texas”
“Department store — Lincoln, Nebraska”
“Cafeteria — San Francisco”
“San Francisco”
“Public park — Cleveland, Ohio”
“Belle Isle — Detroit” [#2]
“Chicago”
“Public park — Ann Arbor, Michigan”
“City Hall — Reno, Nevada”
“Indianapolis”
“U.S. 90, en route to Del Rio, Texas”
“Anybody doesnt like these pitchers dont like potry, see? Anybody dont like potry go home see Television shots of big hatted cowboys being tolerated by kind horses.
Robert Frank, Swiss, unobtrusive, nice, with that little camera that he raises and snaps with one hand he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world.
To Robert Frank I now give this message: You got eyes.
And I say: That little ole lonely elevator girl looking up sighing in an elevator full of blurred demons, what’s her name & address?”—Jack Kerouac, from his introduction to Robert Frank’s The Americans
When the term “period piece” is mentioned, certain works come to mind: John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and even Kerouac’s own masterwork On the Road. Robert Frank’s The Americans, while very unlike the aforementioned works, is a period piece in its own right. During the time of Eisenhower, an industrial time when the nascent highway system was expanding and the car was becoming affordable for the common person, people in America were gradually gaining a greater amount of mobility, and Frank travelled around the mainland United States in an old used car on a Guggenheim Fellowship snapping photographs of the country. Frank’s photographs tell the tale of a time in the United States now long gone, and this tale includes people from all walks of life; behind every scene is a story, behind every face is a mystery, and behind every photograph is a unique glimpse of history.
I found all of the photographs in this book to be very captivating in their own idiosyncratic ways, but to attempt to describe Frank’s photographs would do them (and Frank) a disservice; instead, I’d prefer to point the readers of this review to the photographs in particular that caught my eye, in the order of their appearance in The Americans, with my favorite photographs being in bold text.
My absolute favorite photograph in the entire book, you ask? I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
“Political rally – Chicago”
“Funeral – St. Helena, South Carolina” [#1]
“Rodeo – Detroit”
“Navy Recruiting Station, Post Office – Butte, Montana”
“Movie premiere – Hollywood”
“Motorama – Los Angeles”
“New York City”
“Charleston, South Carolina”
“Ranch market — Hollywood”
“Butte, Montana”
“Yom Kippur — East River, New York City”
“Trolley — New Orleans”
“Rooming house — Bunker Hill, Los Angeles”
“Cafe — Beaufort, South Carolina”
“U.S. 30 between Ogallala and North Platte, Nebraska”
“U.S. 91, leaving Blackfoot, Idaho”
“Covered car — Long Beach, California”
“Car accident — U.S. 66, between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona”
“U.S. 285, New Mexico”
“Barber shop through screen door — McClellanville, South Carolina”
“Backyard — Venice West, California”
“Newburgh, New York”
“Luncheonette — Butte, Montana”
“Bar — New York City”
“Elevator — Miami Beach” (this is the photograph to which Kerouac was referring in the excerpt of his introduction to The Americans included above)
“Restaurant — U.S. 1 leaving Columbia, South Carolina”
“Mississippi River, Baton Rouge, Louisiana”
“St. Francis, gas station, and City Hall — Los Angeles”
“Crosses at scene of highway accident — U.S. 91, Idaho”
“Assembly line — Detroit”
“Salt Lake City, Utah”
“Beaufort, South Carolina”
“Chinese cemetery — San Francisco”
“Political rally — Chicago” [#2]
“Television studio — Burbank, California”
“Los Angeles”
“Bank — Houston, Texas”
“Department store — Lincoln, Nebraska”
“Cafeteria — San Francisco”
“San Francisco”
“Public park — Cleveland, Ohio”
“Belle Isle — Detroit” [#2]
“Chicago”
“Public park — Ann Arbor, Michigan”
“City Hall — Reno, Nevada”
“Indianapolis”
“U.S. 90, en route to Del Rio, Texas”
June 26, 2021
"A sad poem right out of America onto film" - Jack Kerouac
Review of the Stiedl hardcover edition (2008) of the Grove Press hardcover original (1959)
Photograph of Robert Frank and his 35mm Leica camera (1954) by Fred Stein. Image sourced from PBS.org
The Americans is the result of a 9 month trip through 30 U.S. States during 1955-56. Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank (1924-2019) shot what is variously estimated as between 20,000 to 28,000 Black & White photographs during this 10,000 mile journey . After developing the 767 rolls of film, he made 1,000 work prints out of which he selected only 83 images for the final book.
As opposed to what most would have expected as the exuberance of the post-World War II boom years, Frank's images more often show resigned faces proceeding through the events of life from birth to death. There are shots of babes in arms, people on the street, at lunch counters, at bars with jukeboxes (jukeboxes seemed to be a Frank favourite), at parties, at funerals. The images are often caught on the fly, sometimes with unsuspecting subjects turning to stare resentfully at the camera. No opinions are stated in the book by Frank. There are only generic identifiers of subject and location such as "Canal Street - New Orleans 1955", "Trolley - New Orleans 1955", etc.
The final product was considered too controversial at first to be published in the U.S. and first saw print as Les Américains (1958) Delpire, France. It was finally published in the U.S. in late 1959 by Grove Press and the Stiedl publication is its 50th Anniversary edition.
In the book, each photograph becomes an essay in which the viewer must write the rest of the text. Why was this one of 83 selected out of 28,000 possibilities? What is it saying in itself? What is it saying about the people and objects in it? What is it saying about America, Americans and the world at large? You can ponder those thoughts for a very long time.
Other Reviews
The Americans by Jim Casper at Lens Culture, September 2019. This includes a selection of the photographs.
Review of the Stiedl hardcover edition (2008) of the Grove Press hardcover original (1959)
It could seem as if Frank threw his Leica into the world and let it catch what it could, which happened, without fail, to be something exciting - fascination, pain, hilarity, disgust, longing ... No limit to the variety of feelings, with the one uniform rule that they be bleedingly raw. - excerpt from The Shock of Robert Frank's "The Americans" by Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, Sept. 10, 2019.
... flawed by meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposure, drunken horizons and general sloppiness. - excerpt from an early review in Popular Photography 1960.
Photograph of Robert Frank and his 35mm Leica camera (1954) by Fred Stein. Image sourced from PBS.org
The Americans is the result of a 9 month trip through 30 U.S. States during 1955-56. Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank (1924-2019) shot what is variously estimated as between 20,000 to 28,000 Black & White photographs during this 10,000 mile journey . After developing the 767 rolls of film, he made 1,000 work prints out of which he selected only 83 images for the final book.
As opposed to what most would have expected as the exuberance of the post-World War II boom years, Frank's images more often show resigned faces proceeding through the events of life from birth to death. There are shots of babes in arms, people on the street, at lunch counters, at bars with jukeboxes (jukeboxes seemed to be a Frank favourite), at parties, at funerals. The images are often caught on the fly, sometimes with unsuspecting subjects turning to stare resentfully at the camera. No opinions are stated in the book by Frank. There are only generic identifiers of subject and location such as "Canal Street - New Orleans 1955", "Trolley - New Orleans 1955", etc.
The final product was considered too controversial at first to be published in the U.S. and first saw print as Les Américains (1958) Delpire, France. It was finally published in the U.S. in late 1959 by Grove Press and the Stiedl publication is its 50th Anniversary edition.
In the book, each photograph becomes an essay in which the viewer must write the rest of the text. Why was this one of 83 selected out of 28,000 possibilities? What is it saying in itself? What is it saying about the people and objects in it? What is it saying about America, Americans and the world at large? You can ponder those thoughts for a very long time.
Other Reviews
The Americans by Jim Casper at Lens Culture, September 2019. This includes a selection of the photographs.
November 10, 2007
A stunning book that changed my views about what Photography can be. Leave it to a European to come to America in the 1950s and in 83 pictures perfectly expose our hypocrisy while respecting and celebrating us as individuals.
Also, for a book without words, it has a killer introduction by Jack Kerouac.
Robert Frank also filmed the documentary C*cksucker Blues, traveling with the Rolling Stones on their 1972 tour for "Exile on Main St." -- for which he also did the cover. Equal parts debauchery and loneliness, Mick Jagger reportedly said "It's a f*cking good film, Robert, but if it shows in America we'll never be allowed in the country again." A subsequent legal battled ensued over it's release, and it can now be shown in very limited release: 5 times per year, and only with Frank present. Get thee to eBay...
Also, for a book without words, it has a killer introduction by Jack Kerouac.
Robert Frank also filmed the documentary C*cksucker Blues, traveling with the Rolling Stones on their 1972 tour for "Exile on Main St." -- for which he also did the cover. Equal parts debauchery and loneliness, Mick Jagger reportedly said "It's a f*cking good film, Robert, but if it shows in America we'll never be allowed in the country again." A subsequent legal battled ensued over it's release, and it can now be shown in very limited release: 5 times per year, and only with Frank present. Get thee to eBay...
April 4, 2016
"...,coast of blue Pacific starry night - nobone half-banana moons sloping in the tangled night sky, the torments of great formations in mist, the huddled invisible insect in the car racing onward, illuminate..." writes Jack Kerouac in the introduction to this classic book of photographs by Robert Frank. This would be a five star book for that Kerouac introduction only but combined with Frank's pictures it is priceless.
June 1, 2014
It left me with a weird image of America and Americans!
June 2, 2023
When The Americans was released it was dismissed as a "sad poem" of a photography collection. Some images in it are definitely bleak highlighting the post-war landscape and angst of working class America, but it is really so much more than that containing many images that are buzzing with life. In fact, I would argue it is a romanticised view of America from an outsider who sees it as a multicultural land of hope. American flags, cars, graduation caps are recurring elements. It goes into public spaces and private spaces in America sometimes blurring the two. It depicts people of all classes and different races.
Words fail to describe what Frank captures here emotionally. I felt something like nostalgia while looking at the images even though I'm not even American and obviously wasn't present during the time. One can certainly trace the impact that his compositions and way of looking have had on visual culture. A simply breath-taking piece.
August 6, 2020
beautiful images leaving me with mixed emotions.
will write a long piece on favourite images (and not so fav pieces) soon.
will write a long piece on favourite images (and not so fav pieces) soon.
Read
August 31, 2020The majority of them wouldn't garner much more than a second glance today, but I can see why this collection of photos set the nation on edge when it came out. Unpretty, unposed, and unpolished. It showed the everyday as it was. He kicked opened the door (and shattered the hinges) for the rest of us.
June 14, 2021
Kerouac's introduction certainly sets the scene for Frank's images, though I do find his writing style a bit difficult to comprehend sometimes. I will say that the image Kerouac references at the end of his introduction ("that little ole lonely elevator girl") is one of my favorites from the book. If there is a photography book that speaks to the decaying effects of consumerism in post-war America, this is it. The effect is tragic, but captivatingly so.
March 4, 2017
The images in this book either didn't move me or left me so in love with the composition and infected story within its frame. As a whole, each image bleeds spontaneity and common appreciation of the details of living.
January 14, 2020
"Chi non ama queste immagini, non ama la poesia, capito? Se non ami la poesia, va a casa e guarda la TV con i cowboy col cappello da cowboy e i poveri cavalli gentili che li sopportano.
Robert Frank, svizzero, discreto, carino, con quella sua piccola macchina fotografica che tira su e fa scattare con una mano, ha estratto una poesia triste dal cuore dell'America e l'ha fissata sulla pellicola, così è entrato a fare parte della grande compagnia dei poeti tragici del mondo.
A Robert Frank adesso mando questo messaggio: tu sai vedere."
Avrei voluto aggiungere due righe, ma se Jack Kerouac ti scrive un'introduzione del genere volete dirmi che cazzo ci sarebbe da aggiungere?
Robert Frank, svizzero, discreto, carino, con quella sua piccola macchina fotografica che tira su e fa scattare con una mano, ha estratto una poesia triste dal cuore dell'America e l'ha fissata sulla pellicola, così è entrato a fare parte della grande compagnia dei poeti tragici del mondo.
A Robert Frank adesso mando questo messaggio: tu sai vedere."
Avrei voluto aggiungere due righe, ma se Jack Kerouac ti scrive un'introduzione del genere volete dirmi che cazzo ci sarebbe da aggiungere?
March 2, 2022
'What a poem this is... the gray film that caught the actual pink juice of human kind.' Jack Kerouac
If you come to this book, as did I, via an interest in 'Beat' America - the book has an enjoyable foreword by none other than Jack Kerouac, from which I get my banner quote - I might perhaps urge a little caution: the Beat-era vibe of what Ginsberg memorably called 'snapshot poetics' is something Frank is lauded and celebrated for, but, as most Beat authors have conceded, either tacitly or directly, there were aesthetic filters through which experience and observation would need to pass before being alchemically transformed into arresting and worthwhile art.
Incidentally, that this collection is to be seen as a kind of Beat photography is made clear both by the mere usage of Kerouac to write the intro, and by what he says (and how he says it!). When I first posted a version of this review on Amazon someone took great umbrage at my temerity in making such a connection! I could only respond that it wasn’t me who chose Kerouac to write the intro. Although that he was the choice Mayes perfect sense to me.
Kerouac also says: 'the faces don't editorialize or criticize or say anything but "this is the way we are"' And once again this reinforces a Beat (and beyond) attitude of ‘authenticity’.
I feel I have to confess that I was somewhat disappointed by both this book and Ginsberg's Snapshot Poetics when I first got them, both of which I bought from Amazon around the same time (some years ago now). Looking at them again, more recently, I think I marginally prefer the latter, as it seems to live up to its own descriptive title a little more.
For one thing, there's a kind of rampant, generous spirited fecundity, or plain joie de vivre, to much of the writing of the Beats, and both the books mentioned, Frank's Americans and Ginsberg's Poetics, seem ever so slightly miserly in terms of amount of content (there are 85 black and white photographs in The Americans), suggestive of a slightly precious 'art book' vibe, slightly at odds with the open-handed spirit so evident in much Beat writing.
Ginsberg's pictures, as much as they are quite humble, and even in some ways banal, are elevated above the everyday by being, largely, a pictorial documentary of emergent artists in their milieu. Frank's book is by contrast filled with the everyday grist to the mill of writers like Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, et al. The ordinary quotidian stuff they - Kerouac in particular - often wrote about.
For me, whilst there undoubtedly are some great pictures here, a fair chunk of the images seem to have slipped through the aesthetic sifting that a philosophy such as the famous Beat dictum of 'first thought best thought' disingenuously obscures: despite claims to immediacy much of the best of Beat produced or influenced culture is more often than not highly wrought, even stylised, much like the apparently free-flow of jazz improv, a point ably made by David Sterritt in his recent Beat-themed instalment of the Oxford Very Short Introduction series.
There are plenty of photographers who successfully pull off what I think Frank was going for, and what he occasionally succeeds in capturing. Perhaps he really is more akin to the Beats due to the hit and miss nature of the less mediated working methods they share? These others I'm thinking of range from the reportage of Weegee and Capa to the more recent and self-consciously stylised work of people like Bruce Weber and Anton Corbijn.
Having just read Sterritt's slim synopsis of Beat culture I'm looking at The Americans again, and I have to say that in returning to I do find it somewhat better than I initially remembered it as being. There are some terrific pictures, like the wiry cowboy in NY ('Rodeo, New York'), the deserted New Mexico filling station where four pumps stand like tombstones beneath a sign saying 'Save' (which seems to take on an almost religious meaning in that bleak, arid context), and the iconic white lines of the highway ('US 185, New Mexico').
One thing that struck me, when I went through noting my favourite photos, is that by and large I like the more abstract and composed pictures, in which the figures are either partially obscured (as in 'Rooming House, Bunker Hill, LA'), small parts of the whole image (such as the ragged baby dwarfed by a giant shiny jukebox in 'Cafe, Beaufort, South Carolina'), or are absent altogether, only suggested by an object (as in 'Covered car, Long Beach, California').
Perhaps this says more about me than the book? Maybe I'm more attracted to slightly abstract ideas of America than the messy everyday banality of ordinary lives? Certainly Frank captures this latter aspect of American life in The Americans, but I have to say that, as good as it can be, this side of his work doesn't appeal to me as consistently. Having said that, some of the crowd scenes - people snapped passing on a bus, a busy cafeteria, a factory of toiling workers, a convention of besuited conformity - capture a feeling of the teeming multitude that is intriguing, and there are also some more intimate (if strangely alienated) pictures of individuals or small groups that seem quite poignant.
'Anybody doesn't like these pitchers don't like potry, see?' So sayeth Kerouac near the close of his intro. I'm glad I went back to look at this book again after reading Sterritt's book, because I did see more depth and poetry in it this time. Before doing so I would've given it, based on my memories of it, just three stars.
Perhaps to really 'dig it' one needs to have some personal connection with those particulars of 'The Americans' that he captures? If that's so, I find it odd that writers like Kerouac and his fellow Beats were so easily able to make someone like me - an Englishman born long after and far away from the heyday of the Beat era, i.e. 40's-50's America - feel so connected to their experience. I have to say that this book, even though I liked it better returning to it now, doesn't have the same powerful effect on me as does some of the Beat writing it was contemporary with.
So, whilst there's some five star work here, overall it's a bit inconsistent. The Kerouac intro moves me towards five stars, but the mixed quality of the work itself, and the fact that the image captions are all kept separate, to be found groups at the back of the book, leave me feeling it's a four star deal, for me.
If you come to this book, as did I, via an interest in 'Beat' America - the book has an enjoyable foreword by none other than Jack Kerouac, from which I get my banner quote - I might perhaps urge a little caution: the Beat-era vibe of what Ginsberg memorably called 'snapshot poetics' is something Frank is lauded and celebrated for, but, as most Beat authors have conceded, either tacitly or directly, there were aesthetic filters through which experience and observation would need to pass before being alchemically transformed into arresting and worthwhile art.
Incidentally, that this collection is to be seen as a kind of Beat photography is made clear both by the mere usage of Kerouac to write the intro, and by what he says (and how he says it!). When I first posted a version of this review on Amazon someone took great umbrage at my temerity in making such a connection! I could only respond that it wasn’t me who chose Kerouac to write the intro. Although that he was the choice Mayes perfect sense to me.
Kerouac also says: 'the faces don't editorialize or criticize or say anything but "this is the way we are"' And once again this reinforces a Beat (and beyond) attitude of ‘authenticity’.
I feel I have to confess that I was somewhat disappointed by both this book and Ginsberg's Snapshot Poetics when I first got them, both of which I bought from Amazon around the same time (some years ago now). Looking at them again, more recently, I think I marginally prefer the latter, as it seems to live up to its own descriptive title a little more.
For one thing, there's a kind of rampant, generous spirited fecundity, or plain joie de vivre, to much of the writing of the Beats, and both the books mentioned, Frank's Americans and Ginsberg's Poetics, seem ever so slightly miserly in terms of amount of content (there are 85 black and white photographs in The Americans), suggestive of a slightly precious 'art book' vibe, slightly at odds with the open-handed spirit so evident in much Beat writing.
Ginsberg's pictures, as much as they are quite humble, and even in some ways banal, are elevated above the everyday by being, largely, a pictorial documentary of emergent artists in their milieu. Frank's book is by contrast filled with the everyday grist to the mill of writers like Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, et al. The ordinary quotidian stuff they - Kerouac in particular - often wrote about.
For me, whilst there undoubtedly are some great pictures here, a fair chunk of the images seem to have slipped through the aesthetic sifting that a philosophy such as the famous Beat dictum of 'first thought best thought' disingenuously obscures: despite claims to immediacy much of the best of Beat produced or influenced culture is more often than not highly wrought, even stylised, much like the apparently free-flow of jazz improv, a point ably made by David Sterritt in his recent Beat-themed instalment of the Oxford Very Short Introduction series.
There are plenty of photographers who successfully pull off what I think Frank was going for, and what he occasionally succeeds in capturing. Perhaps he really is more akin to the Beats due to the hit and miss nature of the less mediated working methods they share? These others I'm thinking of range from the reportage of Weegee and Capa to the more recent and self-consciously stylised work of people like Bruce Weber and Anton Corbijn.
Having just read Sterritt's slim synopsis of Beat culture I'm looking at The Americans again, and I have to say that in returning to I do find it somewhat better than I initially remembered it as being. There are some terrific pictures, like the wiry cowboy in NY ('Rodeo, New York'), the deserted New Mexico filling station where four pumps stand like tombstones beneath a sign saying 'Save' (which seems to take on an almost religious meaning in that bleak, arid context), and the iconic white lines of the highway ('US 185, New Mexico').
One thing that struck me, when I went through noting my favourite photos, is that by and large I like the more abstract and composed pictures, in which the figures are either partially obscured (as in 'Rooming House, Bunker Hill, LA'), small parts of the whole image (such as the ragged baby dwarfed by a giant shiny jukebox in 'Cafe, Beaufort, South Carolina'), or are absent altogether, only suggested by an object (as in 'Covered car, Long Beach, California').
Perhaps this says more about me than the book? Maybe I'm more attracted to slightly abstract ideas of America than the messy everyday banality of ordinary lives? Certainly Frank captures this latter aspect of American life in The Americans, but I have to say that, as good as it can be, this side of his work doesn't appeal to me as consistently. Having said that, some of the crowd scenes - people snapped passing on a bus, a busy cafeteria, a factory of toiling workers, a convention of besuited conformity - capture a feeling of the teeming multitude that is intriguing, and there are also some more intimate (if strangely alienated) pictures of individuals or small groups that seem quite poignant.
'Anybody doesn't like these pitchers don't like potry, see?' So sayeth Kerouac near the close of his intro. I'm glad I went back to look at this book again after reading Sterritt's book, because I did see more depth and poetry in it this time. Before doing so I would've given it, based on my memories of it, just three stars.
Perhaps to really 'dig it' one needs to have some personal connection with those particulars of 'The Americans' that he captures? If that's so, I find it odd that writers like Kerouac and his fellow Beats were so easily able to make someone like me - an Englishman born long after and far away from the heyday of the Beat era, i.e. 40's-50's America - feel so connected to their experience. I have to say that this book, even though I liked it better returning to it now, doesn't have the same powerful effect on me as does some of the Beat writing it was contemporary with.
So, whilst there's some five star work here, overall it's a bit inconsistent. The Kerouac intro moves me towards five stars, but the mixed quality of the work itself, and the fact that the image captions are all kept separate, to be found groups at the back of the book, leave me feeling it's a four star deal, for me.
October 20, 2013
What intrigued me: I read an article in Time (I think? I was at a doctor's office and my Google-fu fails me) about elderly artists who are still active in the art community. Robert Frank was on the list. They referenced The Americans in the article and I wanted to take a look.
What I liked: There were some truly striking pictures, but this is by far my favorite:
What I didn't like: I didn't connect with all of the photographs, but that is of little consequence.
Favorite quote: “What a poem this is...”
What I liked: There were some truly striking pictures, but this is by far my favorite:
What I didn't like: I didn't connect with all of the photographs, but that is of little consequence.
Favorite quote: “What a poem this is...”
August 8, 2017
Robert Frank's first mission is to tell the story of the americans, and he does so by taking his photography into just about every environment and social group he can find. He is everywhere, and like Bresson, his focus is not always on the technically perfect shot, but on the story, the feeling, the emotion. The americans come together, come apart, as we turn these pages. The introduction by Jack Kerouac echoes this photographic style, as he 'em dashes' out his many thoughts and impressions of America—and ends with saying
"That little ole lonely elevator girl looking up sighing in an elevator full of blurred demons, what's her name & address?"
"That little ole lonely elevator girl looking up sighing in an elevator full of blurred demons, what's her name & address?"
June 17, 2016
There must be some historical context here that I'm missing, but I don't think very much of these photos. Some of them are quite interesting, but perhaps because Robert Frank established this style of "street(?)" photography means that it seems ordinary, but actually was groundbreaking. I have no idea if that's the case. And the drivel introduction by Kerouac didn't help my understanding one bit. Actually, I couldn't get through the introduction. It was way too hip for me.
Maybe I'll look back on this and be embarrassed by this review, but so it goes.
Maybe I'll look back on this and be embarrassed by this review, but so it goes.
February 5, 2014
An all-time favorite book featuring the face of America from small towns to cities. Day and night. Years ago SFMOMA featured a Robert Frank exhibition with many of these photos, plus his the letters he wrote to friends and to get grants. Best of all was matching the photographer's notes on why certain images were selected (or not) as part of the story of America he wanted to tell with the image itself.
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