Our photography group meets once a month. We have a group of about 15 regulars. Each month we cover a topic, usually different, but sometimes we have repeats. In some cases, I prepare a backgrounder (or tutorial) on the topic at hand, to supplement the material we present in our meeting.
This month’s topic is on Photography Essayist, Robert Frank and William Klein.
I am reasonably familiar with the works of both these photographers, yet reviewing it, I was reminded by how these works remain relevant some 70 years later; how they offer us a benchmark of change related to the social challenges we face today. Frank’s book, The Americans in particular, develops a stark view of 1950s America. So harsh, that photo-historian John Szarkowski’s went so far as to say “this is not my America.” But just like contemporaneous notes to a crime, those images convey an aspect of America at the time. The revelation for me was that many of the social issues that Frank alluded to in 1955-56 remain today. Drive through the former industrial heartland and see how it’s been hollowed out and then consider the fallout from that.
Has anything been done since the 1950s? Maybe. Is it enough? That’s the debate isn’t it. Lack of recognizable action or an acceptable rate of progress might explain the frustration that has lead to the political resistance we see today.
Leave a Reply