Family at Hershey plant--Hershey, Pennsylvania 1956

Editor: Robert Frank’s black and white photograph, "Family at Hershey plant--Hershey, Pennsylvania" from 1956, depicts a family at a lunch counter. It's quite a formal, almost stilted image, despite the casual setting. Everyone's drinking something from identical cups, but there's a strange distance. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Frank's image offers a powerful commentary on the performance of family and class in 1950s America. It's not just about a family drinking something sweet; it’s about the expectations, often unfulfilled, placed upon them within a burgeoning capitalist society. Notice how the adults are dressed in business attire even in this informal setting. Editor: I see what you mean, there’s this sense of having to uphold a certain image, even at leisure. The woman's gloves are such an odd detail, it gives that formality you were talking about. Curator: Exactly. Those details speak volumes. Frank, an outsider himself, was brilliant at capturing the unspoken codes of American society. Think about Hershey as a company town, the image of the "ideal family" is almost imposed, feeding into the capitalist machinery. Who benefits from this image, and who is excluded? Editor: So, it's not just a portrait of a family, but a commentary on social and economic structures? It feels less like a snapshot and more like a carefully constructed narrative about the roles people play. Curator: Precisely! By situating the family within the context of the Hershey plant, Frank subtly critiques the notion of the perfect, happy family that was being marketed so heavily during that era. Does this add another layer to your first impression? Editor: Definitely. I initially saw the photo as detached, now I see a calculated effort to project this perfect image that might hide more complex realities. Curator: And that's the power of Frank's work. It invites us to question what we see, and to consider the social forces that shape our understanding of family, work, and the American dream itself. Editor: This makes me look at Frank’s wider portfolio with fresh eyes. I see now that even mundane shots tell stories of how identity and labour, the sweetness and bitterness of American life, intermingle.