Hollywood 10 1958

Robert Frank’s “Hollywood 10” is a photographic contact sheet that captures the mood of Hollywood during a dark period of political repression. These images, made by a Swiss-born artist who became an outsider chronicler of American life, offer a glimpse into the culture of the late 1940s and 50s, when the fear of communism led to blacklisting and persecution. Frank's photographs capture the unease and paranoia of the era, with images that feel both intimate and detached. The contact sheet format emphasizes the fragmented nature of memory and the difficulty of constructing a coherent narrative. This work can be seen as a commentary on the fragility of artistic freedom and the power of political ideology to shape individual lives and artistic expression. Frank invites us to reflect on the human cost of ideological conflict.