Boxer--Reportage 1941 - 1945

Robert Frank made this photograph, "Boxer--Reportage" as a small black and white print. It shows us the kind of everyday subject that preoccupied many photographers in the mid-20th century. The picture seems to be about the idea of work and what it does to a man. Boxing is an iconic American activity, and here it seems to be the only job that this man can get. His eyes stare at us warily, as though he knows the world is stacked against him. There's something hauntingly existential about that gaze. The gloves are worn, and the white tank top hints at the grit and sweat he must endure. Many artists like Frank, who came to prominence in the 1950s and 60s, looked to the margins of society for their subjects. They critiqued mainstream institutions and ideals, suggesting that a darker, more complicated reality lay behind the facade of post-war American prosperity. By studying magazines, newspapers, and social policy of the era, we can understand this work as a cry against that optimistic, but ultimately exclusionary, vision of American life.