Convention 18/Americans 51--Chicago 1956

Curator: Robert Frank’s "Convention 18/Americans 51—Chicago," taken in 1956, is a fascinating gelatin-silver print. What’s grabbing your attention about it? Editor: It's gritty, you know? It feels like eavesdropping on a moment that wasn't meant for my eyes. The graininess lends it this incredible raw energy. Like catching lightning in a bottle, politically speaking. Curator: Frank's aesthetic often leaned towards the unflinching and unglamorous, challenging the idealized imagery common at the time. Look at how the rows of film strip create a fragmented narrative, emphasizing the chaotic nature of political gatherings. It’s almost cubist. Editor: Cubist is a strong word, I'm seeing something much more visceral. I feel the crush of the crowd and almost hear the shouting. Is that intentional do you think? He just drops you into the middle of a sensory overload with these multiple images... each a half-forgotten memory. Curator: I'd say Frank leverages a calculated realism. He dissects the photographic surface through high contrast and unusual angles, constructing and deconstructing the viewers gaze. Take, for example, the cropped faces, and bodies seemingly squashed, together by the frenetic atmosphere. Editor: Yeah, the composition practically screams disarray. The blurred faces…the almost too close shots create a feeling of claustrophobia and detachment. Are we meant to sympathize with the subjects or question the nature of politics, maybe. Curator: The '50s were turbulent with McCarthyism and civil rights movements. Perhaps he was commenting on the performative nature of political conventions, stripping bare the veneer of unity to reveal individual anxieties and ambitions. Editor: Exactly. Art isn’t only art it's context and culture rolled together. Looking back at this moment in 1956. I can almost feel the shift in the cultural zeitgeist that Frank and his photography embody and evoke in a uniquely powerful manner. Curator: It leaves me contemplating how effectively a still image—or in this case, a series of them—can capture such complex societal currents. Editor: Definitely gives one pause…about photographs… and what isn’t caught in them, or on them even to this day. The feeling lingers.