DIA looks at 1950s Detroit through the eyes of
photographer Robert Frank
Detroit Experiences: Robert Frank Photographs, 1955
showcases more than 50 rare and many never-before-seen
black-and-white photographs taken in Detroit by legendary artist
Robert Frank. The exhibition will be on view at the
Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA)
March 3–July 4, 2010. The exhibition is free with museum
admission.
In 1955 and 1956 Robert Frank traveled the U.S. taking
photographs for his groundbreaking book
The Americans, published in 1958. With funding
from a Guggenheim grant, he set out to create a large visual
record of the United States, and Detroit was one of his early
stops.
Inspired by autoworkers, the cars they made, along with local
lunch counters, drive-in movies
and public parks such as Belle Isle,
Frank transformed everyday experiences of Detroiters into an
extraordinary visual statement about American life.
According to Frank,
The Americans
included “things that are there, anywhere, and everywhere…a town
at night, a parking lot, the man who owns three cars and the man
who owns none…the dream of grandeur, advertising, neon
lights…gas tanks, post offices and backyards….”
Frank was drawn to Detroit partly by a personal fascination with
the automobile, but also saw its presence and effect on
U.S.-American culture as essential to his series. Frank was one
of the few photographers allowed to take photographs at the
famous Ford Motor Company River Rouge factory, where he was
amazed to witness the transformation of raw materials into fully
assembled cars.
In a letter to his wife he wrote, “Ford is an absolutely
fantastic place…this one is God’s factory and if there is such a
thing – I am sure that the devil gave him a helping hand to
build what is called Ford’s River Rouge
Plant.” Frank spent two days taking pictures at the Ford
factory, photographing workers on the
assembly lines and manning machines by day, and following
them as they ventured into the city at night.
Born in 1924 in Zurich, Switzerland,
Frank emigrated to the U.S. in 1947. He worked on assignments
for magazines from 1948–53, but his photographic books garnered
the highest acclaim. After publishing
The Americans,
he began filmmaking and directed the early experimental
masterpiece Pull My Daisy,
in collaboration with Jack Kerouac in 1959.
Frank continues to work in both film and photography and has
been the subject of many traveling exhibitions in recent years.
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. established
Frank’s photographic archive in 1990 and organized his first
traveling retrospective,
Moving Out,
in 1995 as well as a 2009 exhibition
Looking In: Robert
Frank’s “The Americans.” Frank lives in Mabou, Nova
Scotia, and New York City with his wife, artist June Leaf.
Hours and Admission
Museum hours are 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10
a.m.–10 p.m. Fridays, and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors, $4 for ages 6-17,
and free for DIA members. For membership information call
313-833-7971.
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