I believe that John Berger once said that the successful photographer is the one who depicts something particular and uses it to convey a universal truth. As far as I am concerned he was right, but one thing is to speculate on what this could possibly mean concretely, another is seeing it with my own eyes.
Although Berger was not making any reference to any photographers, I think that among his list of favorite ones there surely was Robert Frank.
With one of the most impressive photobooks ever produced, The Americans was an explicit critique to the Americans themselves. Frank stopped imbuing America with a sense of perfection.
One of the most significant pictures to me is Canal Street - New Orleans, where a crowd of people is shown walking on one side.
With this sole picture, Frank is, I would dare saying, one of the few photographers who still gives me goosebumps. Why? With this picture, I see those people, those faces of lost individuals, who do not know anymore what life is as they are too busy working as slaves.
Frank documented American society as it was, he intercepted frustrating notes of solitude that we can still hear in 2019.
I admire this picture. I see people as if they were headless, robots that finally begin understanding the basis for an alienating life.
But why not considering the picture showing a black babysitter who is holding a white baby. This kind of imagery needs no explanations. They are eloquent by themselves to such an extent where the viewer is left speechless.
