Coney Island 2
1960
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
contact sheet
Dimensions
overall: 25.2 x 20.1 cm (9 15/16 x 7 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Robert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
Accession Number
1990.28.3254
Art Historical Context
**Coney Island 2** by Robert Frank captures the vibrant yet gritty essence of mid-th-century American leisure. Created in 1960, this sheet from the National Gallery of Art's Robert Frank Collection—generously gifted by the artist himself—offers a rare glimpse into Frank's photographic process. As a Swiss-born photographer who immigrated to the U.S., Frank gained fame with his groundbreaking 1958 book *The*, a raw documentary survey of postwar society that challenged idealized visions of the nation. Coney Island, iconic New York amusement hub, frequently appeared in his work, symbolizing fleeti...
About the Artist
Robert Frank
Robert Frank (1924-2019) was a Swiss-American photographer and documentary filmmaker whose revolutionary approach to documentary photography fundamentally transformed the medium and influenced generations of artists. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, on November 9, 1924, to a middle-class Jewish family, Frank began his photographic apprenticeship in 1941, working with commercial photographers before im...