[Leica] New York Is

[benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney)]

Hi Phil,

Yes, I did mean they were there in America in the 1950s.

Also worth consideration is "Looking in: Robert Frank's The Americans"
cited in this story.

Marty



On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 7:19 AM, Phil Swango <pswango at att.net> wrote:
> Marty Deveney wrote:
> I've spoken to a few people who saw that show and many people about
> the book - it is amazing how many Americans say things about it like
> "I was there, it wasn't that bad" - as though by its title or subject
> matter the photos should have been evenly representative, rather than
> what Frank saw and wanted to convey.
> ===================================================
>
> Marty, did you mean "I was there (at the show in DC)" or "I was there (in
> the 50s)?" ?I'm assuming the latter, and if so, a lot of us here were
> "there" too. ?I lived in New Orleans when Frank was working there and
> remember his photo of the segregated streetcar, with black and white faces
> peering out of the front and rear section windows. ?It definitely reflected
> the reality of that era, and whether it "wasn't that bad" is a matter of
> perspective. ?It wasn't bad for me at all, as a middle class white
> teenager, but it looks pretty shocking today. ?As an outsider I think Frank
> was seeing an America that some of us didn't want to see at the time.
> ?Interestingly, the iconic photo show of that era was the MoMA's "Family of
> Man," an epic affirmation of human community that didn't ask many
> questions.
>
> As an aside, I actually photographed one of Frank's subjects from The
> Americans, without realizing it until much later. ?I was a student in Baton
> Rouge in '59 and had just bought my first "real" camera, a Rolleicord. ?I
> took it down to the riverfront area, where an itinerant preacher dressed in
> a white robe and carrying a cross was known to hang out. ?He was there and
> posed for me on one of the first rolls of film I ever put through the
> camera. ?I had no idea about The Americans at the time -- I just thought he
> was a colorful guy -- and I definitely wasn't trying to make a social
> statement. ?Alas, I haven't been able to locate the old negative but I
> remember it distinctly.
>
> Folks interested in Frank's influence might enjoy Philip Gefter's
> "Photography After Frank," (Aperture: 2009).
>
> --
> Phil Swango
> 307 Aliso Dr SE
> Albuquerque, NM 87108
> 505-262-4085
>
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