Pack mules--Animals 1941 - 1945

Editor: So this is Robert Frank’s “Pack Mules--Animals,” a gelatin silver print from the 1940s. It has this old-world, documentary feel to it. What really stands out to me is how much the animals are burdened – what do you see in this piece? Curator: The pack mules themselves immediately draw my eye, not as sentimental subjects, but as beasts of burden. Look at the way they’re laden, the tangible weight and strain apparent. Consider how the gelatin-silver print – the photographic process itself – is key. It's a readily available, mass-produced method capable of capturing images for widespread consumption. Editor: Mass-produced how? Curator: Gelatin-silver prints became the dominant process precisely because of its efficiency in reproduction, enabling documentary work to reach wide audiences quickly and cheaply. In comparison, what is high art capable of achieving and showing, particularly given the specific cultural context of the 1940s? Editor: That’s true. The scale of photographic reproduction allowed for the message to circulate wider. This almost seems to highlight how ordinary labor facilitates our world – literally moving materials across it. Curator: Precisely. The materiality of Frank’s method allows access into the materiality of everyday life. How can we then reconcile these methods as ‘art’? Is labor represented or simply presented, without adding other layers of fine art? Editor: I guess seeing it this way shifts it from being a pretty landscape to a picture of hard work and even of animal labor. Something I hadn't quite thought about before. Curator: Indeed. Thinking about art in terms of labor and materials forces us to ask about the power dynamics embedded in even the simplest images. The social and economic contexts of Frank’s work are central.