Mississippi River, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
1955
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 20.3 x 25.3 cm (8 x 9 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
1990.28.415
Art Historical Context
In 1955, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank capturedMississippi River, Baton, Louisiana*, a poignant gelatin silver print measuring 20.3 x 25.3 cm. This intimate black-and-white image, now housed in the National Gallery Art's Robert Frank Collectiongift of the artist), exemplifies Frank's mastery of the medium. Gelatin silver prints, prized for their tonal depth, fine grain, and archival stability, were the gold standard for mid-20th-century documentary photography, allowing Frank to subtle contrasts between light and shadow with remarkable clarity. Taken during Frank's transformative Gugge...
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...