Robert Frank – Wellfleet Beach (1962)
Robert Frank took this photograph on the beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts in August 1962. His wife Mary and their two children, Andrea and Pablo are in the photo.
Robert Frank was born in Switzerland in 1924, and emigrated to the United States in 1947. His first job in America was as a photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. He later worked as a freelance photojournalist, but art photography was his passion. From 1955 to 1957 the Frank family traveled around the United States, and Robert took thousands of photos illustrating American life. Eighty-three of these photographs were published in the photo book Les Américains in France in 1958. Les Américains is Frank’s most famous work, and one of the most influential photo books of the century. As one who grew up in Europe, Frank could see America as an outsider, noticing things that a native of this country would not. The book was published in the United States in 1959 as The Americans.
Frank shifted his interest to making movies at this time. In 1959 he directed the beatnik film Pull My Daisy, written by Jack Kerouac, starring Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso. Robert Frank’s most famous movie is his 1972 documentary of the Rolling Stones.
The Wellfleet Beach photo, which was not titled by the photographer, is one of Frank’s most famous. Andrea, nine years old when the photo was taken, is the center of attention. It is obvious from the pattern of her suntan that she did not habitually go nude on the beach. In addition, a nine-year old girl would not be allowed to be naked on a public beach in the USA. The photo was apparently staged in a part of the beach with no people other than the Frank family. Andrea carries an American flag.
Andrea’s mother, Mary Frank, is on the left but her face is not visible. Andrea’s eleven-year old brother Pablo (named after Pablo Picasso) is on the right, and holds a copy of the New York Daily News reporting the death of Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe was an American icon who was famous not only as an actress, but also as a model for nude photographs in Playboy Magazine. I get the impression that Andrea’s nudity and flag are meant to memorialise Marilyn Monroe.
I remember a famous photograph (I think it was in Edward Steichen’s “The Family of Man) entitled “Three Girls – Provincetown, Massachusetts”. (Which is on Cape Cod.)
It showed three nude little girls holding hands in the water. One was seen from the back, the other two from the side. In those days, people appreciated the innocent beauty of those happy children. Today, many people would find the picture objectionable. In some ways, society keeps going backwards.
I was born and raised on Cape Cod. East Orleans was my childhood times. Miss my younger times and days from there. The little girl nude at the beach in the photo..back in my childhood days in the 1950s to 60s was no big deal. Today? Forget it.
I think I should comment that it would not have been illegal for a nine-year-old child to be naked on a public beach. Most, but not all, parents would have wanted a child of that age to wear a bathing suit. But if the child and the parents had both been comfortable about it, it would have been no big deal.
Thanks for the comment. I thought it would have been illegal based on my experience in Florida. I remember reading in the paper of a woman arrested because she allowed her 2 year old daughter to go naked on a local beach. You are closer to Massachusetts than I, and may have a better understanding of conditions there.
Coming to think of it, perhaps nudity of a nine-year-old might have been a technical violation of some law. But it would have been highly unlikely for it to be enforced, especially in those times.
If a woman in Florida was arrested for the nudity of her two-year-old, it must have been a matter of some extremely prudish and fanatical police officer.
Yes, some individuals are more prudish than others, but also some sections of the country are also more prudish. Here, I would not expect a police officer to ignore a nude child on a public beach. He would probobly ask the mother first to either dress the child or leave the beach, and I believe in this case he did. The mother was arrested after she refused to dress the daughter or leave.