Filming, NBC TV studio--Burbank, California
1956
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 25.2 x 20.2 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
1990.28.658
Art Historical Context
In 1956, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank captured *Filming, NBC TV studio—Burbank, California*, a candid glimpse into the booming world of American television during the post-World War II era. This gelatin silver print, measuring 25.2 x 20.2 cm, hails from Frank's transformative cross-country road trip, which produced his landmark book *The Americans* (1958). Amid the era's economic optimism and cultural shift toward mass media, Frank turned his lens on everyday scenes, revealing the glamour and grit of Hollywood's expanding TV industry in Burbank, home to NBC's studios. Frank's black-an...
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...