Robert Frank's seminal photobook, The Americans contains several thematic components, although arguably the most resonant is the raw and festering issue of race relations in the United States during the 1950s. Frank trained his lens not only on large cities such as Hoboken and Detroit, but also numerous smaller towns as he traveled throughout the country. Frank's photographs emphasize the disparities inherent in the American social fabric of the 1950s, no matter the size of the city or social makeup of the community. The resulting body of work from this tremendous undertaking has become one of the most important bodies of photographic work ever made. Charleston, S. C. remains one of the most culturally resonant photographs of the 20th century.
As Swiss-born Frank drove from Virginia to North Carolina during the summer of 1955, he recalled being astounded by the racial discrimination he witnessed. In the many decades between the publication of The Americans and his death in 2019, Frank offered almost no personal commentary, nor provided any description or contextualization for any of the individual images from The Americans. However, of Charleston, S. C. he offered a rare insight:
'It was the first time I was in the South, and the first time I really saw segregation. I found it extraordinary that whites would give their children to black women when they wouldn't allow the women to sit by them in the drugstore. I did very few pictures that made a political point like this.'
A pervasive, deeply-rooted racism and class stratification is documented in Frank's images, most-notably those taken in the American south. Robert Frank authority Sarah Greenough notes that the photographer’s first images from the area included pointed visual representations of segregation, such as ‘white’ or ‘colored’ signs adorning water fountains and designating separate waiting areas, but as his journey progressed, Frank abandoned such conventions in favor of more nuanced imagery (Looking In, p. 122).
The dramatically oversized photograph offered here is believed to be the largest print by Frank to appear at auction. A slightly smaller exhibition print of Charleston, S. C. was sold in these rooms in October of 2017.