Addison Gallery of American Art

On Wednesday, June 5, we will take a private tour of a photography exhibit at the Addison Gallery, which is located on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover.  The exhibit, ROBERT FRANK AND TODD WEBB: ACROSS AMERICA, 1955, was organized by the Museum of Fine Art, Houston and presents photographs that Robert Frank and Todd Webb created separately while on Guggenheim fellowships.  Their photographs are the result from separate journeys across the country, where they traveled by car, foot, boat and bikes to record Americana circa 1955. 

There is no charge for this tour, which is limited to 20 people.  To register, contact Jennifer Coplon jencoplon@gmail.com.  Lunch will follow at a nearby restaurant.

Robert Frank’s cross-country trip by car would result in the celebrated book The Americans. Webb was awarded a grant to walk, boat, and bike across the United States to depict “vanishing Americana, and the way of life that is taking its place.”

Though the men had no knowledge of each other during the application process, both secured a recommendation from famed photographer Walker Evans, and both completed their cross-country surveys—though in radically different ways. Frank’s resulting work became a landmark text in the history of photography, and Webb’s project remains almost entirely unknown. Robert Frank and Todd Webb: Across America, 1955 brings together both 1955 projects for the first time.

In some instances, Frank’s and Webb’s images are strikingly similar—both men took photographs of the highway and dim, smoky barrooms. Because each was unaware of the other’s work, these similarities can be traced to popular cultural trends and shared ideologies. Both men, after all, engaged in projects that challenged the idealistic purity of the “American Roadtrip.” Radically different photographs made in the same location reveal the photographers’ diverse perspectives and approaches.

Frank’s grainy, off-kilter style was matched with his harsh examination of the darker side of American life. An immigrant born in Switzerland, Frank (1924–2019) harnessed his outsider perspective. The tender, carefully composed images created by Detroit-born Webb (1905–2000) celebrated the individual oddities of the American way of life. Ultimately, comparing the work of these photographers reveals the complexity of their projects and the impossibility of capturing a singular vision of “America.”