Robert Frank's Covered Car – Long Beach, California (1956)

Photography is an instrument that can speak to various aspects of life by directly looking at it. The pictorials in Robert Frank's Covered car – Long Beach, California (1956) and the Beat Movement are classic examples that the photographers might have used to define the era and turn of events. A closer analysis of the tone, atmosphere, mood, attitude, outlook on life, artistic innovations can reveal what was happening at that particular moment. Robert Frank's Covered car – Long Beach, California (1956) and the Beat Movement contain a number of similarities. The photos fundamentally feature what was happening in America at that particular period. Robert Frank remains one of the celebrated photographer artists celebrated in American history. The featured images were taken in the mid-1950s when he traversed the United States on a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Beat Movement was defined at a time leading to the 1950s and was regarded as the era of conformity. 

In both Robert Frank's Covered car – Long Beach, California (1956) and the Beat Movement, there is a glimpse of cars, parades, highways, jukeboxes, and diners. That is an iconic representation of the state of living of living of a majority of the American citizens. It manifested an underlying sense of hardship and alienation. Most of the goods items were a preserve for a few people (Smith, 2017). People lived in destitute positions and yearned for a livelihood with no success. Some of the photographs feature women carrying a child with lots of sympathy looks. That is a clear indication of hunger and anguish that these people were going through at that time. 

Some of the pictures manifested in both Frank’s work and the beat movement showed a case of the barrenness of the American culture. Other photos displayed a vision of renewal and rebirth. Their actions demonstrated a likelihood of an exchange between the black Americans and the Whites. One might tend to think that the counter vision and lifestyle of the blacks would offer an alternative for the white Americans. I further tend to believe that the representation of both black American and white Americans at that period could not be for naïve celebration but a representation of the problematic nature of the racial realities and the alienation and the loneliness that afflicted a majority of Americans. 

There is a more magnificent portrayal of poverty. In both Frank’s photographs and the beat Movement, some pictures show people that are living in dirty apartments. Some are sited in crazy places with painful conditions. A majority could not afford a television and thus leads to photos of particular families standing next to a house to watch television next to their home. As could be seen in other images, some of them gave a likely portray of selling drugs. Drugs and substance abuse remain one of the critical indicators of poverty-stricken surroundings. Crime is yet another vice that accompanies persons who are engaged in drugs and substance abuse. A society where drugs and crime are on high stakes, poverty will always reign (Smith, 2017). Such kinds of people are unpredicted, bored and often requires to create excitement in their lives. All the same, watching television after dinner was an ordinary bonding time and experience for most families. 

Frank and the Beat movement vision were not limited to the 1950s alone. The concept was neither singular nor especially European. Some of the subjects and themes that were common to the Americans well predate the two compendiums. The imagery alienation, mass culture forms, violence and death as well as the highway and automobile metaphors are quickly gotten are readily witnessed in the photographs. The themes and subjects were not only specific to America instead; they might have sought to make a documentary of the predicament that the modern man is likely to face. 

Frank’s photography and personal vision were in perfect affinity with the beat movement. He works shows he was an existential photographer par excellence. Frank’s photography allowed him to be always outside and his art needed no connection or communication with other people. He was basically an observer. Like the beat movement, Frank was not rooted to a particular place. Frank appeared as the beat Movement photographer in style. Both images reflected a codified ideal between the two systems. The artistic vision of Frank seemed to be correlated and similar to that of the Beat ("ROBERT FRANK:” 2018). 

One of Frank’s photos portrays a woman socialite, apparent in a photograph, which is gaudy in jewels, and in lifeless fashion and minus a smile. Her face depicts a grimace of severe ennui. The look on her cheeks shows the kiss of a man whose long fingers could wrap around her cold shoulders in a seemingly Dracula kind of an embrace ("Robert Frank%7s Covered car – Long Beach, California (1956) - Google Search", 2018). From Frank’s photography, one might tend to argue that the American blood had been sucked out by the alienating, materialistic, and absurd culture. That is precisely the critique that is portrayed by the beat movement existentialist through their photos. 

Some of the photos portrayed black Americans as the representative of hope and some room for expectation and positive alternative approach. That was a drift from the images that showed an alienated, lonely crowd. Some pieces of his work portrayed them as a part of the community but alienated from themselves ("ROBERT FRANK:” 2018). They occupied a space that permitted them to express a solid sense of emotion, spontaneity and feelings. Some photos portrayed their human dimensions, and that gave a visual clue to their historical situation. The works also intelligently described the irony, ambivalence and pathos of the black experience. In the beat movement wall, blacks are portrayed as expressions of uninhibited sexuality, and of disdain for social convention. 

The aesthetic quality of the photographic is above par. The photographs were professionally done and communicated vast information at first sight. The photos were spontaneous, and from them, one could find quickly the information they so needed. Further, they are appealing to the eye and thus do not promptly get bored while watching the photographs. They are unique in nature and an accurate representation of the reality of the events that happened during that time. The photographers had a casual approach and that often generated blurred picture and tilted horizons, and that caused the photographic style to appear controversial. 

Further, one can easily understand Robert Frank’s work within the contexts of the undercurrents of the Beat Movement. The photo-shoots represent the work of an existential photographer that captured the alienating and absurd nation of the white Americans. The Americans can also break from the maintain America through a paradoxical interpretation of the blacks. They mention that the oppressed black American operate more freely than the white superpowers ("ROBERT FRANK:” 2018). 

There is that crazy feeling in America when the sun is high and blazing on the streets and music comes from a close funeral or a jukebox. That is captured in the large photos that are captured by the wayside in several estates in an old used car. He produces the mystery, agility, sadness, genius, and strange secrecy of a showed photographed spots that had not been earlier witnessed on photography. The beat movement coded Robert Frank’s graphics in the exact words and phrases, “CRAZY FEELING . . . Music . . . jukebox . . . funeral . . . Traveled on the road . . . Old used the car . . . Agility, mystery, genius, sadness and strange secrecy.” The beat movement therefore to some extent is an iconographies’ roadmap ("ROBERT FRANK:” 2018). The open road graphic details that contain the white dividing lines that continuously move to the abyss, the jukeboxes had their lonely and wide repertoire. The funeral scenes were symbolic and related to the omnipresent culture of cars ("ROBERT FRANK:”, 2018) 

In conclusion, it can be censoriously summarized that the Robert Frank's Covered car – Long Beach, California (1956) and the Beat Movement had a cordial way of existence. They were in operation during the 1950s. The photos were meant to communicate critical thematic information of the realities that were happening in the American societies. Both photographers showcased destitute situations that the black Americans lived under. There was an underlying sense of hardship and alienation. There was a cordial relationship between the Frank and the Beat Movement, and seemingly the beats were using Robert Frank to pass their message through melodies. 

References 

Robert Frank%7s Covered car – Long Beach, California (1956) - Google Search . (2018).  Google.com.ua . Retrieved 27 February 2018, from https://www.google.com.ua/search?tbm=isch&q=Robert+Frank%7s+Covered+car+%E2%80%93+Long+Beach,+California+(1956)&chips=q:robert+frank%27s+covered+car+long+beach+california+1956,online_chips:photographers&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwihqYKGt8XZAhUHb1AKHYNrBJAQ4lYIJygB&biw=1920&bih=903&dpr=1 

the Beat Movement - Google Search . (2018).  Google.com.ua . Retrieved 27 February 2018, from https://www.google.com.ua/search?q=the+Beat+Movement&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwig5Yn9tsXZAhVKZFAKHbyVC6oQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=903 

Smith, R. J. (2017).  American Witness: The Art and Life of Robert Frank . Da Capo Press. 

ROBERT FRANK: . (2018).  AMERICAN SUBURB X . Retrieved 27 February 2018, from https://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/01/theory-photographer-in-beat-hipster.html