Restaurant - U.S. 1, leaving Columbia, South Carolina

From a background of successful photojournalists, Frank often found himself frustrated by the rigidity of magazine assignments. In 1955 he received a fellowship to do a photographic tour of the United States. The images this tour produced were scenes of American everyday life, such as parades, highways, urban life, domestic scenes, and political gatherings. The goal of his project was to capture the stark realism, however common or unpleasant, of American popular culture and its icons. His photos were published in the book The Americans, published in Paris in 1958 and in the United States the following year. His photographs often revealed an underlying sense of anxiety, loneliness, and mundane routine, and the book was widely criticized. However, Frank's vision resonated with younger generations of photographers, and his work became hugely influential. An affinity was felt with Frank's ability to exploit and question the American ideal, and with a medium that had rarely been used for such a message.