The Americans – Robert Frank
November 18th, 2009
City Hall, Reno, Nevada, 1956
My friend Jason Eskenazi wrote me with a request.
Dear Dan,
As you know I worked at the MET for almost 2 years as a security guard. In the last months I guarded the Robert Frank show almost everyday. Ive been asking famed photogs what photo of the 83 images in the Americans really does it for them or that they can say they were ‘born’ out of, is their hands down favorite. I’m trying to get 83 photographers to respond to this survey question.
I finally quit and Im on my to Turkey.
Hope all is well.
JE
He presented me with a dilemma. I went back to the book and went through it again through all 83 images evaluating my emotions and thoughts.
I responded to him with these thoughts.
Selecting only one is like breaking apart a string of pearls and saying this one is my favorite. He put them all together, sequenced, juxtaposing them in an order that gave them a particular meaning. Telling a story.
Picking apart the thread and isolating one image changes its meaning.
But since you asked, my favorite picture changes almost every time I seriously look at the book.
I like #81 City Hall, Reno, Nevada, 1956, these days, after having shot more than my share of just married couples in the past few years.
He nailed it.
Leave a Reply