Analyzing Robert Frank

This image is taken from Robert Frank's book 'The Americans' which focuses on post war American photography and society at that time. This image named, 'Trolly' which was taken in New Orleans, 1955 focuses on the citizens of New Orleans. The subject of the photo, the people, is made clear from the composition and framing in the photo, Frank's has made a deliberate choice to crop out any other surrounding objects that may distract from the subject, another factor is the way that the windows frame each of the intended subjects which makes them more focused, the use of the rule of thirds also creates an interesting composition.  At a first glance the photo seems as if it is just showing people going about their every day lives, but there is much more of an intention than that, during the 1950's there was a clear racial segregation between white and black, this is shown through the seating on the trolly, with the white people at the front and the black people at the back and I think that it was Frank's intention to show this. Frank's has used a fast shutter speed to capture all of the detail and to create a clear image of the people and trolly, the image is also has a high contrast and deep depth of field both of which add to the atmosphere of the photo.

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