Those who love black and white photography can get an eye-full at the Brandywine Museum of Art through May 4. The message of the exhibit may give some people pause, however. "Robert Frank & Todd Webb: Across America, 1955" has an eye on “America as Myth,” as one panel in the third-floor gallery says.
“In 1955, each from their own perspective, they started to question the mythology of American life,” said Brandywine Museum of Art Curator Amanda Burdan. “I think of this as the ‘Happy Days’ version of the United States,” she said referencing the television show of the 1970s and ‘80s that was set in the 1950s.
Webb had been a Wall Street stockbroker who lost everything when the stock market crashed in 1929 and wound up working many different jobs, she said, many of them manual labor in the wake of the crash. He eventually took up photography.
Frank and Webb knew each other, but neither knew at the time that they were both embarking on the same journey, touring the country to photograph Americana independently of one another in 1955. Both received Guggenheim Fellowships for the project.
According to the panel, Frank, who came to the United States from Switzerland in 1947, said “America is an interesting country, but there is a lot here that I do not like and that I would never accept. I am also trying to show this in my photos.”
Webb, too, expressed disappointment “in the material prosperity and spiritual poverty” he found during his travels.
But also, as the panel says, “The truth they encountered was irreconcilable with the idealized American image from popular media. Yet, in the distance between the myth and reality, both men found fertile ground for their art.”
While Frank’s photographs were included in his book “The Americans,” Webb’s images were never seen, not even printed until recently, according to Burdan. This is the first exhibit where Webb’s images are made available for public viewing.
Burdan said the project for both was simple, travel the country and take photos of American life. The two men traveled differently. Frank drove, while Webb walked and rode bicycles across the country.
One interesting aspect of Webb’s work is that even though his photos weren’t printed until recently, he had made a deal with Life Magazine, Burdan said. He would send his film canisters to the magazine which would then make contact prints for his. A contact print is an image from multiple negatives printed on a sheet of photo paper used for analyzing and choosing negatives to be printed individually later.
The men also had different styles or approaches to the work.
“One [Webb] is more calculated, and framed and precise and intentional, while the other [Frank] is more shoot from the hip,” Burdan said.
She noted a similarity in subject between the two. Specifically, she noted the automobile and the open road — as exemplified in Webb’s Between Lovelock and Fernley, NV, and Frank’s U.S. 285, New Mexico — and then how the disposable things became as depicted in Webb's image of old junk cars in a field he titled Wrecked Car Lot.
They each also shot in bars, restaurants, hotels, and pretty much any place that caught their fancy, but their styles, treatments, and approaches were different.
“Even in their writing you can sense the difference between them,” she said. “Todd Webb was meticulous; all his letters are even and with straight lines. He plans things out. And his photographs sometimes follow that path.
“He likes to walk, move slowly, get to know the people and the place. Therefore, when he does portraits, you often find out who the person is and the story behind it.”
Frank is different.
“Robert Frank is more off the cuff. His letters slant. His handwriting is messy and he’s not planning out his spaces.”
As an example, Burdan pointed to Frank’s piece New York City in which the photo is candid, shot just as the subject turned toward the camera.
She also noted that 1955 was a year that showed changes in American culture. It was the year the film The Blackboard Jungle was released. The film depicted juvenile delinquency and had a different style of soundtrack.
“While the crooners were still being heard on the radio, you also had Bill Haley and Rock Around the Clock coming out.” The tune was in the film.
“So, there are changes, shifts, a counterculture bubbling up. Maybellene [by Chuck Berry] was on the radio, and Elvis and Buddy Holly, but so was Doris Day,” she said.
And it was in that time frame of moving from the fabulous fifties to the sizzling sixties that Frank and Webb were capturing Americana with their photography.
Next up
While "Robert Frank & Todd Webb: Across America, 1955" is on display now, through May 4, another exhibit, Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life & Art of Barbara Shermund opens Saturday, Feb. 15.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading...
Comments