Channelling Frank 1954

Robert Frank
130 west 23d
New York City

To photograph throughout the U.S.A. and to center the attention on industrialization. The people in the midst of this era of progress and the effect it has upon them. On city people and on families in agricultural areas. The aspirations of manual workers in comparison to white collar employees. Maybe the picture will be different in various places, or then it might be surprisingly similar in places far apart.

I am always impressed by the strong admiration for the young and all that is new. The atmosphere in which young people - especially students - learn and grow up and how their free time is spent. Also the strong influence of women on all levels, such as I have never seen in Europe.

I don't think that this should be a carefully planned trip, but that the photographs - with some text - should be a spontaneous record of a man seeing this country for the first time (except N.Y.). I feel that the U.S. is the country that is evolving more rapidly than any other country and that my project is bound to be incomplete but I am sure that it will be a vivid and valuable report. Such a project can only be executed by complete independence. That is why I apply for your fellowship.

I expect to complete the project within one year. The publisher Robert Delpire (Edition Neuf, Paris) has agreed to publish such a photographic essay in book form. I have also written to Mr. Kuebler of "Du" Magazine in Switzerland and have received a favorably reply.