Motorama, Los Angeles

In 1955, Swiss-born, New York City–based artist Robert Frank was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim fellowship and set out to photograph the United States. In his resulting body of work, The Americans (1959), the former fashion photographer captured in 83 photographs a haunting yet flattering picture of the country through glimpses of cars, highways, diners, and other mid-1950s symbols. Here, each title takes the viewer on-the-road of this cross-country journey: either witnessing a family car passing by, two kids waiting in the backseat of a limousine, a glamorous shot of a movie premiere or a somber scene in a dusty road.