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U.S. 285, New Mexico

Robert Frank American, born Switzerland
1956
Not on view
This photograph belongs to the series Frank made and published in his great book Les Américans (1958)--an unvarnished look at this country as it revealed itself to the Swiss-born photographer on a series of road trips he made in 1955 and 1956, funded by Guggenheim fellowships. The quintessential evocation of life on the road, this image is both dynamic and solemn; the lines of the highway plunging toward the glowing horizon create a sense of movement, while the car of a lone traveler--barely visible at the top of the image--and the vast emptiness of the desolate New Mexico landscape communicate a powerful sense of isolation.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: U.S. 285, New Mexico
  • Artist: Robert Frank (American (born Switzerland), Zurich 1924–2019 Inverness, Nova Scotia)
  • Date: 1956
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 13 1/2 × 9 7/8 in. (34.3 × 25.1 cm)
    Sheet: 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift through Joyce and Robert Menschel and Barbara and Eugene Schwartz Gift, 1995
  • Object Number: 1995.162
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Robert Frank
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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