Name of Artist: Robert Frank
Dates of Artist’s Life: 1924-
Dates of Artist’s Life: 1924-
- Personal Background: Robert Frank began studying photography in 1941 at the age of 17. After this he spent 6 years working for graphic design and commercial photography studios. Then he moved to the United States from Zurich. In the United States, a fashion designer Alexey Brodovitch hired him to take photographs for his company. Unfortunately he left that job after he realized that he was very limited in fashion photography. Three years later he worked freelance to produce photojournalism. Also during this time he worked on advertising photographs for Vogue, Charm, LIFE, and Look.
- Style: Robert Frank’s style of photography is very abnormal. All of his photos are in black and white. Many of the photos he took revolved around segregation. In one photo it shows and old city bus from the outside and all of the Caucasian people are sitting toward the front while all of the African American people are sitting toward the back of the bus. Other photos are just random pictures of how different people lived back in those times. I would say overall her style is documentary.
- Philosophy: Frank grew up during segregation. I think he took his photos to show how wrong segregation is. He also took his photos to show the difference between the rich and the poor. Many of his photos are either of the people who live in wealth or poverty. Also he took his photos of people in the city and of people in the country. The difference between how these two types of people live is substantial.
- Influences: Robert has influenced me because I am starting to like documentary photos even more. I like how he takes photos in many different places. He also takes his photos of many different people. I also like how his photos have such a wide variety of topics. Many people don’t think about this
- Sources:
- https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/robert-frank?all/all/all/all/0
- http://pictify.saatchigallery.com/446253/robert-frank
- https://www.leegallery.com/robert-frank/photography/robert-frank-peru-1947/
(Untitled) Focused
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The Same
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Out of all the pictures that I took I think that this was the one that was the most fun to take. My brother was very excited to do this and did very well. There are still some background differences but overall it is a good picture. I think the most noticeable difference is what is in the background. I also think that the lighting could have been better because it looks like he used a street lamp and I used natural lighting. Also I tried to see if my brother had any suits but sadly he didn't. When taking this photo, I struggled to get him in the same exact position.
(Untitled) Annoyed
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Impaired
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This is a picture of my sister. There are some differences in this photo, especially the background. In the background of the original photo, it looks like there is a person who is hanging and I didn't think I could repeat that. Also, in the original photo, the girl is holding a real cigarette, and we don't have these in our house so instead we used a sharpie. The girl in the photo also looks a bit older than my sister who is 5 years old. I struggled to find the correct position with my sister as well.
Untitled (Shy)
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Scared
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This picture is of my brother. The first difference I notice is of the hat he is wearing, I couldn't find one that matched the original. Also, my brother is wearing a much different shirt. The background is pretty good but it is not the same, because in the original he looks like he is standing in the middle of a graveyard. But in mine he is standing in the middle of run down farm. I struggle with finding a good background, so I just editied one in to make it look like the original.
Artist Statement
I wanted to take these pictures to represent the many different types of pictures that Robert Frank took. Whether he was in the middle of a city or in the middle of nowhere, he was always documenting daily life, and I respect him for that. I wanted to take these pictures to emphasize that photos don't have to be colorful to have emotion or to make people feel emotion. When I took these pictures I used everything I have learned this trimester (composition, elements, principles, and the 10 rules of photography). Most of the time, in these pictures I used rule of thirds and contrast between the person and the dark background. In Robert 's photos, he seemed to not use any rules at all when he was taking his photos. He seems like the type of photographer who sees something he wants to take a picture of and just whips out is camera without asking or anything. I have learned a lot from Robert Frank's photos because photos don't have to look good if they document something more important. He lived during segregation and seemed to put his perspective on this. I have learned that you don't have to go far and wide to find places to take pictures, you can just go downtown and find people to take pictures of.