(READING) Making History: The Americans by Robert Frank
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Last updated 6 months ago
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Read the passage below and answer the questions related to the reading.
Read the passage below and answer the questions related to the reading.
By Emilia Paquette
1 Although photographer Robert Frank was born in Europe, his photographs of Americans in the 1950s are what catapulted him to fame. Sometimes it’s easier to see a group of people when you aren’t a member of the group. When you are unfamiliar with a culture, you are less likely to have preconceived notions about what you hope to see or what you expect to see. Then again, this is the mark of all good documentary photographers: to see with honesty.
2 One of the first images I was asked to study as a burgeoning photographer was from Robert Frank’s infamous book The Americans. In between learning about the science of photography—how to work an enlarger in the darkroom and make images from film come to life—my teacher would show us well-known images and ask us what we saw. He was training us to be able to read an image at the same time he was training us how to make one.
3 As my teacher’s fingers struck the light switch off, the slide projector beamed an extremely compelling image onto the screen. It was a picture of a side of the trolley in New Orleans, Louisiana, with people peering out of the windows. The composition was perfectly balanced. The top third of the image comprised rectangular windows with wonderfully odd, rather abstract reflections in them. The bottom third of the image was simply the side of the trolley, with its metal and bolts giving way to a smooth, lovely surface.
4 However, the middle third of the image was what immediately got my attention. This part of the picture showed people with various expressions and from various walks of life looking out the trolley windows. There’s a woman with a stern face looking out the trolley window, as well as children who seem to be enraptured by the passing scenery, followed by two men, one who’s looking wistfully out the window and the other who’s seemingly staring right at the photographer with a beautiful, albeit perhaps sad, expression. I found it amazing that Robert Frank was able to capture all of these people in one frame. The image says so much about life during the 1950s.
5 After discussing the image in class, I went to the school library so I could take in more of Robert Frank’s work. When I asked the librarian about him, she smiled and explained that his book The Americans was famous and that as a beginning photographer, I was smart to study it. She pulled it off the shelf and handed it to me. I spent two hours pouring over every image. Eventually, I bought my own copy, which I cherish.
6 In my opinion, Robert Frank used photography in the best way possible. He used it to show us who we were. His documentary-style images were made candidly, without setting anything up in advance or asking people to pose. As a result, looking at his body of work in The Americans has a very arresting effect. This is not a fictional story; this is our history in picture form.
7 Even though I was not alive at the time Frank’s pictures were taken, I feel like I have a strong sense of the 1950s because of his images. I can compare life now to life then. In some ways, things have stayed the same. His pictures of a mother and child, a waitress at a diner, and a couple walking down the street show that through the ages we largely act the same. But in other ways, things are quite different now. His pictures of people at a drive-in movie theater, for example, reflect times of the past.
8 It is important to know where we came from, and for that reason Robert Frank’s images are priceless. Had he not captured these moments, they simply would have been lost. It’s interesting how a memory doesn’t have to be yours personally for it to have meaning. Although I don’t know any of the people in these images, as a United States citizen, they feel like a part of what makes me who I am.
9 (Robert Frank was born November 9, 1924, in Zurich, Switzerland. He is considered one of the most significant photographers of the mid-twentieth century due to his depictions of American life in The Americans. As a young man, Frank worked as an industrial photographer and a fashion photographer. Dissatisfied with that work, he began exploring his personal vision using a 35-mm camera. In 1955 and 1956, he traveled in the United States, making images that would eventually be published in The Americans, which comment on social aspects of American life. In 1959, Frank abandoned still photography for cinematography. Although his first film was successful, his later films did not achieve as much critical acclaim.)
Which of the following conclusions can be made from paragraph 1?
Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
What does the author mean by the sentence, “It’s interesting how a memory doesn’t have to be yours personally for it to have meaning”?
Which of the following best summarizes the passage?
What is the purpose of the passage?
Which of the following can be concluded from the parenthetical information about Robert Frank in paragraphs 9 and 10?
Based on the information presented in the passage, what can the reader infer about The Americans?