Audience, CBS TV studio--Burbank, California c. 1955 - 1956

Editor: Here we have Robert Frank's gelatin-silver print, "Audience, CBS TV studio—Burbank, California," dating from around 1955. There’s a real sense of being crammed in with other people; a kind of collective anticipation, maybe even anxiety. It makes me wonder what’s going on here. What do you read into it? Curator: Robert Frank. Ah, yes, a master of the seemingly mundane. What strikes me most is the… almost performative nature of observation here. These folks are ostensibly an audience, ready to *receive* a spectacle, but Frank flips the script, making *them* the spectacle. Are they excited, bored, a little lost in their own thoughts? I suspect the image is more about them as subjects rather than passive onlookers. The soft gradations in the silver gelatin print only enhance that effect... Do you sense that duality, of observer versus observed? Editor: I see what you mean about being observed! The lighting is a little harsh, but that just makes me focus even more on individual faces; each seems to carry its own micro-drama. Do you think Frank was critiquing celebrity culture at all, showing audiences becoming part of a strange production line? Curator: Interesting idea! Critique may be too strong a word, although I see the seed of that in what you're saying. But remember, Frank was always on the periphery, a poetic outsider gazing in. The man sees with such clarity through the murk. What appears documentary soon feels like some waking fever-dream of post-war America, with a bunch of dreamers waiting with nervous expectation... waiting for what exactly...? Editor: Waiting for their cue? That image really sticks. This photo made me see the observer versus observed duality which makes the seemingly mundane all the more exciting! Curator: Indeed. Sometimes, it is not *what* is recorded, but *how* that breathes meaning into it. We too now become the audience looking back on these individuals from CBS studio and ourselves are subject of time itself... Thank you, photography!