Family in mirror--Santa Cruz, California
1956
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 25.2 x 20.3 cm (9 15/16 x 8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Robert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
Accession Number
1990.28.793
Art Historical Context
In 1956, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank captured *Family in Mirror—Santa, California* during his transformative cross-country road trip across the United States, funded by a Guggenheim Fellowship. This gelatin silver print, a classic black-and-white medium prized for its tonal depth and archival permanence, exemplifies Frank's documentary style. Measuring just under 10 by 8 inches, it distills a poignant moment of American leisure: a family glimpsed in a distorted mirror, likely at the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk, joy with subtle unease. Frank's work revolutionized photography, moving be...
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...