America & Other Myths

“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all come to look for America
All come to look for America

~ Simon & Garfunkel, “American Tune”

By Elin Spring

Once upon a time, during the height of post-WWII American pride, two photographers journeyed across the country with the aspiration of picturing our nation. Swiss-born Robert Frank and American Todd Webb were the only photographers awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1955, each recommended by the towering American documentarian Walker Evans. The resulting book “The Americans” made Robert Frank famous, while Todd Webb’s erudite images can be seen for the first time in the illuminating and absorbing comparative exhibit, “Robert Frank and Todd Webb: Across America 1955,” on view at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA through July 31^st, 1924.

Original book jacket for THE AMERICANS by Robert Frank, with an introduction by Jack Kerouac, published by Steidl in France in 1958 and in the US in 1959.

Skeptical of deeply ingrained conceptions about “The American Dream,” these two men photographed independently from New York to California. Todd Webb was 49 years old, with an eclectic career that led him into photography in his late 30’s. In 1955, he was a veteran editorial photographer with close ties to established photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Berenice Abbott. Each week as he traveled, Webb sent his exposed film to LIFE magazine, where they developed it and printed contact sheets for him.

Todd Webb, Diner, Ouray, CO, 1955, printed 2023, inkjet print, courtesy of Todd Webb Archive. © Todd Webb Archive

Todd Webb meandered his way across America on foot, boat and bicycle, photographing with two Rolleiflex twin-lens, medium format cameras and one 35mm Leica camera, exposing about one roll of film each day, keeping a carefully penned journal, and writing letters home regularly to his wife. His interest in American history and cultural lineage is reflected in his steady, inquiring style. Whether out of respect or maintaining a sense of perspective, his meticulously composed frames were often shot from a distance. The depth and breadth of Webb’s career path, maturity and philosophical outlook is embedded in each of his photographs.

Todd Webb, Rodeo, Lexington, Nebraska, 1955, printed 2023, inkjet print, courtesy of Todd Webb Archive. © Todd Webb Archive (Installation view by Elin Spring)

Robert Frank, Coffee Shop, Railway Station, Indianapolis, 1956, gelatin silver print, courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of P/K Associates.

Robert Frank was an energetic 29 year-old who emigrated from the social democracy of Switzerland, a tiny, politically neutral country with an ethnically homogenous population. One might say, the opposite of the United States in almost every way. And yet, Frank started his expedition with many of the same notions and doubts about America as Todd Webb. Beyond that, they could hardly be more different.

Left: Robert Frank, Rodeo, New York City, 1955–56, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Jerry E. and Nanette Finger. © The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation.
Right: Todd Webb, Cowboy, Lexington, NE, 1956, printed 2023, inkjet print, courtesy of Todd Webb Archive. © Todd Webb Archive.

Top: Todd Webb, Oregon City, OR, 1955, printed 2023, inkjet print, courtesy of Todd Webb Archive. © Todd Webb Archive.
Bottom: Robert Frank, Covered Car, Long Beach, California, 1955-56, gelatin silver print, courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, museum purchase funded by Jerry E. and Nanette Finger. (Installation view by Elin Spring)

Robert Frank embodied a younger generation, facing into the present and future rather than cogitating on the past. Armed with one 35mm Leica rangefinder camera, whose mirrorless construction rendered it nearly silent, Frank criss-crossed the country by car. Quick on the draw, he exposed nearly three times the amount of film as Webb, developing it and printing contact sheets in friends’ darkrooms along the way.

Left: Robert Frank, Bar, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1955–56, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase. © The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation.
Right: Todd Webb, Joe, Abiquiú, NM, 1955, printed 2023, inkjet print, courtesy of Todd Webb Archive. © Todd Webb Archive.

Left: Robert Frank, Yom Kippur – East River, New York City, gelatin silver print, courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Manfred Heiting, the Manfred Heiting Collection.
Right: Todd Webb, Top of the Empire State Building, New York, NY, 1955, printed 2023, inkjet print, courtesy of Todd Webb Archive, © Todd Webb Archive. (Installation view by Elin Spring)

It should also be noted that Frank was arrested several times during his trip, primarily for looking and talking like an outsider, an image he normally embraced. Frank’s restless energy and quixotic nature are clearly discernible in his dynamic frames, featuring off-kilter perspectives, selective focus, vibrant blurs of motion, sometimes intrusive views, and always, an alluring emotional immediacy.

Robert Frank, Men’s Room, Railway Station, Memphis, Tennessee, 1955, gelatin silver print, courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, museum purchase funded by Jerry E. and Nanette Finger.

Naturally, Webb and Frank’s disparate backgrounds and personalities were evident in their imagery. That makes the parallels in their photographs all the more surprising. Although their perspectives differed, the things they elected to photograph were uncannily similar: open roads, cowboys and rodeos, monuments, people alone and ensconced in crowds, trolleys, cars, factories, restaurants and bars. Their choices seemed to be driven by the very impressions popularized in the media regarding American icons and values.

Left: Todd Webb, Wrecked Car Lot, Stoystown, PA, 1955, printed 2023, inkjet print, courtesy of Todd Webb Archive. © Todd Webb Archive.
Right: Robert Frank, Untitled, 1955–56, gelatin silver print, courtesy of the June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation. © The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation.

Just as intriguing are the disillusions and disappointments both Webb and Frank expressed following their journeys. Webb was chagrined by the pervasive obsession with shiny new products and penchant for social climbing, noting “the material prosperity and spiritual poverty that I felt so strongly.” Frank critiqued America’s inequalities in economic, racial and social class, writing “Power and Money; and that, especially the latter, is the mark of success upon which the system insists.” Both men photographed and wrote about signs of discrimination they deplored. Nonetheless, their portraits ring with empathy.

Left: Todd Webb, Clifton Ray Durham, Shawneetown, IL, 1955, printed 2023, inkjet print, courtesy of Todd Webb Archive. © Todd Webb Archive.
Right: Robert Frank, New York City, c. 1947–51, gelatin silver print, courtesy of the June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation. © The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation.

Exhibiton creator Lisa Volpe, Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, aptly concludes: “Ultimately, Frank’s and Webb’s reexamination of what it means to be American reveals the complexity of their undertakings, their unique perspectives and artistry, and the impossibility of discovering a singular vision of America.” While Webb’s and Frank’s photographs reference a particular era, the enduring beauty and relevancy of this exhibit is that we continue, and probably always will, “all come to look for America.”

Left: Todd Webb, Between Lovelock and Fernley, NV, 1956, printed 2023, inkjet print, courtesy of Todd Webb Archive. © Todd Webb Archive.
Right: Robert Frank, U.S. 285, New Mexico, 1955, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Jerry E. and Nannette Finger. © The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation.

For more information about this exhibit, go to: https://addison.andover.edu/exhibition/robert-frank-and-todd-webb-across-america-1955/

For information about the excellent exhibition catalog, go to: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300270891/america-and-other-myths/

Feature Image: Robert Frank, Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955-56, printed 1972-77. Gelatin silver print. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Target Collection of American Photography, museum purchase funded by Target Stores. Courtesy of Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.