Assembly Line, Detroit
Robert Frank
American, born Switzerland.1924–2019
1955
A 1955 gelatin silver print in which Robert Frank documents a Detroit automobile assembly line, aiming to expose the regimented, anonymous rhythms of industrial labor.
The grainy, blurred image compresses workers and machines into a pulsing horizontal band that pulls your eye down a narrow vanishing line, making movement and crowding feel palpable yet impersonal.
Part of Frank’s groundbreaking midcentury work, this photograph helped push documentary practice toward subjective, socially critical imagery that valued mood and everyday tension over polished objectivity.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
8 7/16 × 12 5/8" (21.4 × 32.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
163.1959
Palette
Exhibitions
