Robert Frank arrested while shooting the Americans

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sirius

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Since police infringements on the rights of the street photographer is a favorite topic around here, I'll share these links.

Robert Frank was arrested while he was doing his iconic trip across America to make what would later become a seminal book in photography history, The Americans.

Here's his arrest report.
http://www.photopermit.org/?page_id=69

and here is Frank's response in a letter to Walker Evans
http://www.photopermit.org/?page_id=70
 
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Thats a great link, thank you for that! I have a copy of The Americans and wouldnt give it up for anything.
 
Back then he fit the profile of a communist.
He would be arrested today in the same place as a suspect islamic terrorist.
see, hardly nothing changes in the land of the free.
 
sirius said:
Since police infringements on the rights of the street photographer is a favorite topic around here, I'll share these links.

Robert Frank was arrested while he was doing his iconic trip across America to make what would later become a seminal book in photography history, The Americans.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much indeed. Every police station should be sent a copy of The Americans and of these two letters -- perhaps pasted inside the front and back covers.

Cheers,

Roger
 
xayraa33 said:
Back then he fit the profile of a communist.
He would be arrested today in the same place as a suspect islamic terrorist.
see, hardly nothing changes in the land of the free.
Click to expand...

...or a pervert.

I'll bet he would have had trouble taking some of those photos today. I've heard people are much more reactionary to getting their picture taken. Traveling in the developing world, taking someone's photo is often taken as a compliment. Perhaps that is more like the way things were in N. America.

I often wonder what the effect of globalization is on people. Are there really more pedophiles in the world or are there less but we hear about them more...People in Florida were so afraid after September 11 that they could not leave the house. What role does the media feeding frenzy have on driving fear up in people. Am I pedophile if I take a picture at a playground or of some persons kid as I walk down the sidewalk?

In general, we're a much more connect people, and a much more fearful one.
 
No wonder he refuses to do interviews and get his work used in anthologies and history books... At least, that's what I read in Bystander: a History of Street Photography. The whole thing looks so ludicrous...

Sad tradition, I guess... :(
 
Unfortunately I don't think there's anywhere entirely free of Barney-Fife-style local yokels with too much time on their hands. In defense of their line of questioning, there were, in fact, Soviet spies and agents active in the US at the time who were up to no good, so law enforcement was obliged to be alert. But it's pretty unlikely that most spies would be so obvious as to tramp around the country with cars full of cameras. Just as it's fairly unlikely that terrorists would do the same today.
 
I you were a Northerner (USA) traveling in a Southern State 1950's to early 1970's that was the typical hospitality to expect from everyone.
 
Why would you need photo ID in a free society in the 1950s?

And my reading is that he had the Guggenheim letter with him (I may have skimmed it too quickly).

Couldn't the police have called the Guggenheim?

Could they PRONOUNCE Guggenheim?

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Thanks very much indeed. Every police station should be sent a copy of The Americans and of these two letters -- perhaps pasted inside the front and back covers.

Cheers,

Roger
Click to expand...

Last summer I tried to get a used copy of The Americans. From the original publishers, >$4000; a somewhat later edition, about $125. Revisiting Amazon today, I see that a new edition is due out tomorrow (15 May 2008) and will cost about $30. Remarkable timing.

Harry
 
The history of photography is divided between before "The Americans" and after "The Americans".

If the trip was going to be easy Frank wouldn't have done it, the guy was absolutely fearless.
 
sirius said:
...or a pervert.

I'll bet he would have had trouble taking some of those photos today. I've heard people are much more reactionary to getting their picture taken. Traveling in the developing world, taking someone's photo is often taken as a compliment. Perhaps that is more like the way things were in N. America.

I often wonder what the effect of globalization is on people. Are there really more pedophiles in the world or are there less but we hear about them more...People in Florida were so afraid after September 11 that they could not leave the house. What role does the media feeding frenzy have on driving fear up in people. Am I pedophile if I take a picture at a playground or of some persons kid as I walk down the sidewalk?

In general, we're a much more connect people, and a much more fearful one.
Click to expand...


I'd bet the number of pedophiles as a percentage of the population remains the same. The fact that we have more people living today than years ago, plus a 24 hour news cycle, may make it SEEM like there are more than ever.

It is good to see that police stupidity isn't just a recent development, only the "bad guys" have changed. I wonder who will be next?
 
Steve Bellayr said:
I you were a Northerner (USA) traveling in a Southern State 1950's to early 1970's that was the typical hospitality to expect from everyone.
Click to expand...

I once had a real fun time riding in rural North Carolina in a car with New Jersey tags. We were questioned at the side of the road for a while, but we didn't get arrested. Heard the term "Yankee" about every fourth or fifth word...
 
Thanks for the link Sirious.

Robert Frank was arrested while he was doing his iconic trip across America
Click to expand...
...

He returned the favour with the publication of The Americans.

Notice though in the letter to Evans how he was still eager for naturalization (which appears to be the reason for writing it in the first place). And very fearful that it would not be possible after the incident.

To be able to stand critically and "suck a sad, sweet poem out of America" and at the same time desire to be part of it, that was the fundamental contradiction many non-US people must had felt at the time.
 
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to bcostin
Can you name any thing those spies did that show up in the history books? communist hysteria was just that, and the people who went along with it or perputated it were the real anti americans. Eliza Kazan and all of that ilk I hope you never rest in peace.
 
get over it, no never forget

get over it, no never forget

I do not care what Arthur Miller said about that period. Peoples lives were ruined and some died over the persecution i.e. John Garfield. I care about the health of this country adn no never forget. PS I am a first generation Jew my mother was born in hungary and came to this country in 1939. Guess how many relatives survived ww11 out of 49 . David PS What is the the old line about history "those that forget history are doomed to repeat it"
 
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