'Americans': The Book That Changed Photography

There are few single works of art that have changed the direction of their medium. In 1959, one book dramatically altered how photographers looked through their viewfinders and the way Americans saw themselves.

Robert Frank's The Americans showed a different America than the wholesome, non confrontational photo essays offered in some popular magazines. Frank's subjects weren't necessarily living the American dream of the 1950s: They were factory workers in Detroit, transvestites in New York, black passengers on a segregated trolley in New Orleans. Frank didn't even get much support from the art world, he recalls.

"The Museum of Modern Art wouldn't even sell the book," Frank says. "But the younger people caught on."

"I'd never seen anything like it," photographer Ed Ruscha says. "Robert Frank came out here and he just showed that you could see the USA until you spit blood."

Joel Meyerowitz, a pioneer of color photography, was also inspired. "It was the vision that emanated from the book that led not only me, but my whole generation of photographers out into the American landscape in a sense — the lunatic sublime of America," he says.

To hear Frank's own words about his photography and read the entire article written by Tom Cole visit NPR.

Also on NPR's website is a review of the book Looking In: Robert Frank's 'The Americans', Expanded Edition.

If you haven't had the opportunity to see a Robert Frank photograph in person, the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas currently has one image on view as part of the American Concepts and Global Visions/Selections from the AT&T Collection: Masterworks of Photography February 11, 2009 – May 17, 2009.

Image credit: Contact sheet of Robert Frank