Florida 28 1958

Editor: This is "Florida 28," a 1958 gelatin silver print by Robert Frank. It depicts strips of film, negatives really, capturing scenes of mid-century Florida, mostly cars. There’s a kind of fragmented, voyeuristic quality to it. What catches your eye most in this work? Curator: For me, this work exists as more than a collection of photographs of cars in Florida. It operates as a powerful social commentary. Frank, a Swiss immigrant, was looking at America with an outsider’s eye, capturing the stark realities beneath the veneer of postwar prosperity. Consider the automobile. What does it signify? Editor: Freedom? Mobility? Curator: Yes, the supposed freedom of the open road. But look closer. The fragmented frames, the often-bleak composition. Does that feel free? Frank is hinting at something else: the burgeoning car culture’s isolating effects and its contribution to a rapidly changing landscape. How does that reading impact you? Editor: It makes me think about the environmental impact and how car culture is intrinsically linked with American identity, even now. Are you suggesting that Frank critiques that relationship? Curator: Precisely. He challenges the romanticized vision of American life. Also, the visible film strip…it is almost as though he invites us behind the scenes of photography, demystifying the myth of objective truth that photos try to pass off. Do you agree with this assessment? Editor: I hadn't considered it in terms of a direct commentary, I appreciate this view! Seeing it now makes me want to reconsider all of my preconceived notions. Curator: Exactly, which is a necessary action. Keep that thought; questioning assumptions, seeing beyond the surface, it is the activist's creed.