Rare Chicago: Images Of 1950s By Photographer Robert Frank

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- In the middle 1950s Robert Frank crisscrossed the United States capturing images of largely unseen or unnoticed American life.

The result of the work was the seminal book, "The Americans."

Inside the cover, were 83 photographs that dug deep under the surface of the perception of bucolic American life.

The images captured racism, life on the road and the raw, unvarnished beauty of Americans from just about every corner of the country.

He took hundreds of pictures, and at least two of them from Chicago made the cut.

One of the images shows a tuba player at a 1956 political rally; another is the rear of a car, with a religious placard on the rear window.

Until now, the contact sheets of Frank's work were generally not accessible to the public.

The National Gallery of Art has digitized the collection, which is available online.

Frank was in Chicago for a political rally and the Democratic National Convention at the International Amphitheatre in August of 1956, which led to the nomination of Adlai Stevenson. He also captured a variety of Chicago street scenes that same year.

The book's images, along with those that didn't make the cut, remain poignant and powerful nearly six decades after publication in 1959.

In the You Tube video above, the image of the tuba player appears at the 3:50 mark. The video of the car appears at 5:20.