Deconstructing Connotations: An Essay on Robert Frank's Photography

This essay provides an analysis of two photographs by Robert Frank, a Swiss-American photographer, focusing on their connotative meanings and similarities. The essay references academic journal articles to explore the socio-economic context depicted in the photographs, which portray children in Spain, highlighting poverty and inequality. The black and white imagery evokes a sense of realism, loneliness, and a reflection of domestic culture and socio-political conditions. The first photograph contrasts school children with a beggar, while the second captures street children smiling, both conveying a sense of violence in terms of denial of basic human rights. The essay concludes that Frank's photographic view profoundly influenced perceptions of culture and society, capturing nuances ahead of his time. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study resources for students.

PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography may be considered to be one of the most creative forms of art through the creation
of images. The given essay analyses two of the photographs that were taken by Mr. Robert
Frank, a famous Swiss-American photographer and one of the most critically acclaimed
documentary filmmakers across the world. The essay attempts to analyze the similarities
between those two images and draws insight into their connotative meanings expressed through
those two photographs with reference to relevant academic journal articles. The first photograph
(see appendix-1) shows some of the school, going boys in their uniform with another boy, being
a beggar, carrying a wastepaper bag probably and standing aside. On the other hand, the second
photograph (see appendix-2) shows the children who are street dwellers are giving pose to Frank
and smiling with utmost innocence. The first journal article "We never talked about
photography” was written by Ferrell in the year 2017 which put emphasis on the photographers’
responsibility towards society and ideal mix of aesthetics and documentation through imageries
(Ferrell 45). The second journal article “The construction of photographic meaning” was written
by Mendelson in the year 2015 which talked about the connotative meaning of photography in
the broader perspective of socio-economic backdrop (Mendelson).
Both the photographs as shown in the appendices show the reality of children residing in the
streets of Spain at the time. The poverty has been portrayed soulfully in both the photographs.
The socio-economic situation of the country has been nicely captured through the depiction of
child labor reflecting the poverty. In this context, the concept of the connotative meaning of the
photograph has been explained. A photograph portrays various meaning from the social,
economic and political point of view and those meanings are construed to be the connotative

meaning of the photograph (Paddle8). In other words, the inner essence of the imagery as
portrayed through the photographs may be considered to be its connotative meaning.
In addition, both the images contain a soulful shade of black and white which truly exhibits the
sense of realism. It may also be observed that both the photographs depict loneliness and
serenity. Both the photographs represent a true spirit of the domestic culture of the country and
the economic and socio-political condition prevalent. As a result, the connotation is profound
and sound.
Moreover, the photographs evoke a sense of violence too in terms of betrayal and denial from
basic human rights (Robert Frank). The first image is stunning in establishing the fact that the
access to education is not widespread in the country and inequality still exists in the firm of
poverty, hunger and non-education. On the other hand, the image describes the sorrow in their
lives and inequality in the society as there is a dog visible within the frame which does not look
odd symbolizing the pain of marginalized people
Robert Frank has been renowned mostly for his photographic view towards the country's culture,
society and its various nuisances. Frank's attitude toward the conventional photographic
technique deeply influenced most of the Americans who saw it first at that point in time as his
photography was much ahead of his time.

References:
Ferrell, J. (2017). "We never talked about photography": Documentary photography, visual
criminology, and method. In Routledge International Handbook of Visual
Criminology (pp. 40-52). Routledge.
Mendelson, A. (2015). The construction of photographic meaning. Handbook of Research on
Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts, Volume II: A Project of
the International Reading Association, 27.
Paddle8. (2019). <https://paddle8.com/work/robert-frank/130055-children-spain>
Robert Frank. (2019). <https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/robert-frank?all/all/all/
all/0>

Appendix - 1

Appendix - 2