Park--San Francisco
1956
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 20.3 x 25.2 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
1990.28.826
Art Historical Context
Robert Frank's *Park—San Francisco* (1956) captures a fleeting moment in the vibrant urban life of mid-20th-century America. This gelatin silver print, measuring 20.3 x 25.2 cm, is a classic example of black-and-white photography from Frank's groundbreaking road trip across the United States As a Swiss-born photographer who immigrated to New York in 1947, Frank brought an outsider's sharp eye to everyday scenes, documenting the nation's social textures with unflinching honesty. This image, part of his seminal series later compiled in the 1959 photobook *The Americans*, reflects the post-World ...
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...