Balcony/Valencia

1949–1950

Travels in South America and Europe; a hand-made book on Peru

He soon leaves again to travel in South America and Europe, creates another hand-made book of photographs shot in Peru, and returns to the U.S. in 1950.

1950

The group show “51 American Photographers” at MoMA

The year is momentous for Frank: after meeting Edward Steichen he takes part in the group show 51 American Photographers at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

1950

Married: Mary Frank

1950–1953

Disillusionment with America and a brief move to Paris

Though initially optimistic about American society and culture, Frank’s perspective quickly changes as he confronts the fast pace of American life and what he sees as an overemphasis on money: he now sees America as an often bleak and lonely place, and his dissatisfaction with the control editors exercise over his work colors the experience. He continues to travel, moving his family briefly to Paris.

1953

Back in New York and the “New York School”

He returns to New York and works as a freelance photojournalist for magazines including McCall’s, Vogue and Fortune. Associating with photographers such as Saul Leiter and Diane Arbus, he helps form what Jane Livingston has termed the New York School of photographers of the 1940s and 1950s.

26 May 1953 – 23 August 1953

Exhibition: Postwar European Photography