The image above is from Robert Franks book The Americans, which came out in a decade when America was divided by the old values which had existed for centuries and the new radical values of the "beatniks" of the 50s and 60s.
According to Robert Frank Photography, Bio, Ideas | TheArtStory
Beatniks- "who exemplified the apolitical, free-form spirit of post-war American existentialism. Having made his living as a commissioned commercial photographer, but left feeling frustrated artistically in that role, Frank took his 35mm camera onto the streets and highways of America where he honed his highly influential style of wandering, observational photography. Frank shunned the principle of balanced compositions in favor of crooked, grainy high contrasts in black and white and his revolutionary approach to his subjects was to prove decisive in the development of a more authentic reportage photography. In later years Frank found critical success as an underground moviemaker and his work generally took on a more personal, even spiritual, dimension. In its 2015 career retrospective article, the New York Times introduced Frank as 'the most influential photographer alive"
His work holds a mirror up at America during this divisive time conflict and the vestiges of Jim Crow laws regarding race, and tells a narrative of modern America. This image above shows public transport which has whites and the front and blacks at the back. Segregation of blacks was common and this image illustrates this.
Robert Frank.
The image above shows a young black male who is confident and personifies the new mood of blacks at the time that challenged racist views and segregation.
The type of book Robert Frank created in The Americans was a narrative-which told a story of modern America and the changes taking place in society.
The first image is called Trolley-New Orleans. According to Robert Frank Photography, Bio, Ideas | TheArtStory "Used for the cover of The Americans, Trolley - New Orleans (taken, incidentally, four days after a 'conspicuous behavior' arrest for having alcohol in his car) effectively announced Frank's intention to document the lives of ordinary American people; a search for a pictorial essence of present-day American life using only available light and shade. However, though now accepted as his magnum opus, and indeed despite its formidable introduction by Jack Kerouac, The Americans (the book was in fact published in France in 1958, the year before it was available in the United States) was criticized in prestige journals and magazines (such as Life) for its "drunken horizons" and its focus on "wart-covered" America. Frank saw himself however in the role of a contemporary flaneur, recording modern life while going unseen and un-noticed and commenting indeed that he often "felt like a detective or a spy". In this image, Frank managed to encapsulate, through the blank emotions of 'unremarkable' people, a nation caught up in the frictions between post war American optimism and the realities of race relations and working-class life"
Robert Adams.
As mentioned above, the church in the image is the same church but in different seasons. It is similar to the work of Walker Evans. However, it is clear that Adams in these images has appropriated the style of Evans but given the book his own style also.
Walter Evans American Photographs.
The images are only on one page of the book and the other side is left empty. The contrast of colors sees two colors only, black and white.
Katy Grannan On the Boulevard
These images were all taken either in San Francisco or LA and represent the passers by who where in both areas. According to Katy Grannan "I’ve always been interested in the way that photographs relate to storytelling, especially the economy of a short story and the way in which a universe, or a fragmented universe, is encapsulated within very limited parameters. My photographs are vignettes, but they’re not just about the specific person in the picture—the narrative includes the unseen exchange between artist and subject who are often strangers meeting for the first time, each taking a leap of faith by trusting an unfamiliar person and an unexpected encounter. In the past, I photographed people in their homes or in deserted outdoor spaces (usually they’d answered ads I placed in local newspapers), but in Los Angeles and San Francisco, we met on the street and made the photographs streetside, in public"
The images are portraits of numerous individuals who have one thing in common-which is the area they are photographed. They are mostly unaware of the photographer taking their image for this collection of images. The layout is 3 images to a page which is white-similar to a canvas.
Katy Grunnan Westerners
Grannan uses the same concept as before of photographing people in a particular place. This time, she deals with the west coast of America. The images are shot on large format cameras and Grunnan suggests these people are new age pioneers who have made their life's on the west coast. The image layout uses two images on a page. Both are exact in size. The background again is white with only the photographers name, images and books title seen.
Richard Renaldi Fall River Boys.
In this collection of images, Richard Renaldi wanted to photograph young males who were from Fall River NE at a time of economic slump and decline. The book contains portraits of males and landscape images of the area. The fundamental element which underpins the book is a place-which connects everything and the lives of the males in the book. The images are all black and white and take up all the book.
William Eggleston
In this example, Eggleston uses the portrait of males and females of differing ages. There are 3 portraits to a page which has a white background.
Alec Soth Sleeping by the Mississippi
Soths work deals with people who live around and near the Mississippi River in the USA. All the towns and communities which are close to its banks. According to Sleeping By The Mississippi • Alec Soth • Magnum Photos "He drove from location to location, going from one thing to another, with a list of keywords for things he was interested in taped to his steering wheel; Soth’s aim was to stop his car as soon as something caught his eye, but he found that what had captured his attention was not necessarily the stuff of pictures he wanted to make. “Often these are photo clichés, things that look like work by another photographer,” he says. He first needed to weed out these well-trodden tropes in order to find the personal, the things that would allow him to honestly carve out his own meaning and make pictures"
The images share a geographical location and the people who share this land are photographed.
iThe book contains both landscape images and portraits of individuals and couples.
Shizuka Yokomiza
The images above by Shizuka Yokomiza are of males and females who are being viewed through a window. We see the window pain and frame. We also see the person looking out of the window possibly at us looking at them. There is a Voyeuristic feel to the images that reminds me of Edward Hoopers artwork of the C20.
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The images consist of one image per page and a think frame around the photograph-which gives us a sense of being part of a window frame and we are looking in.
Julian Germain.
FOR EVERY MINUTE YOU ARE ANGRY YOU LOSE SIXTY SECONDS OF HAPPINESS > 1992 - 2000
Julian Germains book (above) is a sentimental look at elderly people living in Britain. She uses images from the photo albums of Charles and Betty Snelling-who are down to earth pensioners who are not bitter at life, they are content and happy. The book takes on the appearance of a photo album and the portraits show us two people who are reflecting in their modest environment. Despite their living conditions, life is happy.
Tina Barney The Europeans.
Tina Barney travelled to Europe between the years 1996 and 2004 and used a large format camera, lights and an assistant to create images of people within the EU. According to Tina Barney: The Europeans - Frist Art Museum "With the help of friends and curators who provided introductions and her own natural instinct for propriety, Barney gained access to the inner circle of the Old World elite. She worked quickly and closely with her subjects devising scenes and relationships, colors and patterns that lead the eye through the image while engendering narratives both melancholic and endearing"
The work by Tina Barley is a look at a selective and secretive world of Europe's rich elite through photography. Her book tells a narrative while showing this class of individuals in there opulence and splendor. The color of the paper is gold and represents the subject that she is addressing.
Inzajeano Latif Female Boxers.
The collection of images by Inzajeano Latif is a collection of images of female boxers who are strong both athletically and physiologically. The concept for the images is based on the photographers experience only having a single mother as a parent-who was strong. This concept is a retelling of "the male gave" but instead of vulnerable females, these females are strong and refuse to be victims.
According to Latif "My photo series on female boxers delves into the male and female gaze concept in sports photography. Historically, sports photography has been dominated by the male gaze, which focuses on male athletes' physical strength and power, often objectifying and sexualizing female athletes"
The images are a selection of female portraits of boxers which challenge the traditional narrative of sports photography and the male gaze. There is no boarder that separates all of these women, just a continuation of female boxers and an explanation of the concept.
Abbie Trayler Smith The Big O.
Abbie Smiths series of images investigates the findings that 1 in 3 children in the country are clinically obese and struggle with their weight. The consequences of being overweight are not just physical, it also affects the chills confidence and there phycology.
Included within the images of young ladies, there appears to be drawings of fat ladies. The way the images are laid out gives the viewer the sense that we are looking at a young girls scrap book with random thoughts. This is despite the fact the series looks at a serious issue. The series looks at the labels that society place on people who are obese and asks society not to use such labels-see the person instead.
The images looked at follow a similar pattern of having a contextual idea and using a sequence effect when we view the photographs.
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