Guggenheim 515--Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer back lot, Universal City, California
1956
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
contact sheet
Dimensions
overall: 25.3 x 20.5 cm (9 15/16 x 8 1/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Robert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
Accession Number
1990.28.2539
Art Historical Context
In 1955, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank received Guggenheim Fellowship to document America "as it really is," a project that culminated in his groundbreaking 1959 book *The Americans*. 1956 contact sheet, titled *Guggenheim 515--Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer back lot Universal City, California*, a slice of that journey. Likely from Frank's cross-country travels, it shows the gritty reality behind Hollywood's glamour: the sprawling back lot of the MGM studio at Universal City, where magic was manufactured amid dusty props and industrial sprawl. The "Guggenheim 515" refers to his grant number, under...
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...