From the Permanent Collection: Robert Frank’s “The Americans” is a rare showing of the complete set of photographs comprising this landmark postwar photography book. Published in 1959 in the US by Grove Press, with an introduction by Jack Kerouac, The Americans is widely considered one of the most important examples of 20th century photojournalism, a time capsule of the Beat Generation zeitgeist and cultural record of postwar America. The project began in 1955, when Frank, a Swiss-born photographer, received a Guggenheim grant to photograph the US, its people, and places. Over the next two years, he traveled by car throughout the country, capturing over 20,000 negatives on his handheld Leica camera. Of these, Frank selected eighty-three black-and-white images for publication.
From the Permanent Collection: Robert Frank’s “The Americans” celebrates the 50th anniversary of The Americans’s publication. MOCA’s portfolio, the only full set of the series in a public collection on the West Coast, is displayed here in the order devised by Frank for the original book.
From the Permanent Collection: Robert Frank’s “The Americans” is organized by Rebecca Morse and Corrina Peipon, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.