Robert Frank's America

There are two Americas. That's something we hear a lot, and it sounds right. However, these two Americas come in innumerable pairings. There is Sarah Palin's "real" America which is set in contrast to the unreal America of the cosmopolitan urbanites. There is the rich America and the poor America. There is the America of Trump and Fox News and the America of the New York Times and NPR. There is the white America and the multi-hued America. There is the religious America and the secular America. There is the Red Sox loving America -- and everyone else.

Then there is Robert Frank's America and Norman Rockwell's America. Frank's is black and white, in your face, and a little on the edge. Rockwell's is illustrated in soft, gorgeous colors, from a slight remove that imbues scenes with an affectionate, idealized glow. The Beat America and the Mayberry America. But they are the same America. Though their aesthetics are so unalike -- I won't say antithetical -- Frank and Rockwell do overlap in their subject matter. Critics note that Rockwell addressed issues such as race in America in his own way. And Frank's photos are his own unsentimental love letter to the America that this immigrant chose to make his home. Here, then, are some images of one America, Robert Frank's America.

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