Cotton harvesters--Arkansas 1955

This photograph, Cotton Harvesters--Arkansas, was taken by Robert Frank. While undated, we can locate it in Frank’s broader social project, his attempt to map the margins of American society in the 1950s. The photograph depicts two African American men. One stands in front of a wooden structure and the other is looking over the top, perhaps in some way connected to the cotton industry. As a European immigrant, Frank was very interested in American inequalities. The image hints at themes of labor, race, and social class, and also at the way these categories are often rendered invisible. Frank’s project was to use photography as a way to challenge those existing social norms. We can better understand such images by researching both the history of photography and the social history of the United States. What was the history of labor in the United States during the 1950s? What were the dominant stereotypes about race? Only with this additional information can we truly understand the social and cultural work this image performs.