An exhibit in the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne displays some of the images taken of Wyoming and its residents in the 1950’s by photographer Robert Frank on his journey across the United States.
Frank was an influential photographer for the mid-20th century. His images are iconic in their unique style, identified as having a satirical perspective of everyday life, dealing with social commentary and bold black and white compositions. He was best known for his photographic book The Americans published in 1959, in which he selected 83 photographs from his two year journey across the U.S., the book is also on display in the exhibit.
Robin Everett, a processing archivist at the Wyoming State Museum, said “he wanted to document the culture spreading across the United States.”
The images currently on display are outtakes from his journey, during which he took over 28,000 photographs. Many of these images have never been seen or published before.
There are some exceptions. Those include an image in front of the Casper Courthouse on Armed Forces Day. It is on the cover of the Rolling Stones album Exile on Mainstreet. Another photo is a Woman on a horse which Frank published in one of his later books.
“I’ve nicknamed her Aunt Dottie. Because I just want people to walk in and see a picture and say ‘Oh, there’s my aunt,’ or ‘There’s my mom’,” said Everett. Everett believes the image of a woman on a horse holds great sentiment not only for herself, but also for many Wyoming residents who may hold similar memories.
“One of our goals was to have people come in and look at them (photographs) and hopefully recognize family… and then start an intergenerational conversation,” said Everett, who feels it is important that Wyoming residents come to see these images.
“I think that they would realize that they have a place and that Frank thought enough of them to take their image,” said Everett.
Frank was different from most other photographers of his time in that his images tended to focus on people. Frank was born November 9, 1924, in Zürich, Switzerland and emigrated to New York in 1947. After spending some time as a fashion photographer, Frank received his first Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955. This gave way to his two year journey documenting the U.S. whose culture greatly impacted his work.
“The pictures that you’re going to see are people. People walking across the street, people at rodeos, in cafeterias, you’re going to see just a little bit of everything,” said Everett.
Frank went through at least five different identifiable Wyoming communities. Everett has been working with the June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation to have the exhibit travel back through to those communities.
For those images that were not able to be hung in the exhibit, the State Museum does have a QR code for visitors to view the rest of Frank’s images.
The exhibit was put together in partnership between the June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation, the Wyoming State Archives and the Wyoming State Museum. The exhibit is open till March 29.
