Sagamore Cafeteria, New York City
1955
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 21.9 x 32.9 cm (8 5/8 x 12 15/16 in.) sheet: 27.7 x 35.4 cm (10 7/8 x 13 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Robert Frank Collection, Robert B. Menschel Fund
Accession Number
1994.55.1
Art Historical Context
In 1955, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank captured *Sagamore Cafeteria New York City* during his transformative cross-country road trip across America, funded by a Guggenheim Fellowship. This gelatin silver print is one of the iconic images from his groundbreaking photobook *The Americans* (1959), which offered a raw, unflinching portrait of mid-century U.S. life Amid post-World War II prosperity, Frank's lens revealed subtle undercurrents of isolation and everyday grit, turning the bustling cafeteria into a snapshot of urban anonymity and cultural melting pot in Manhattan. Frank's street...
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...