CHICAGO DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION 1956

Frank was commissioned by Esquire to visit the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August 1956. His photographs, which document the hectic pageantry and razzmatazz that surrounded the nomination of Adlai Stevenson as the Democrats' candidate for President, were considered too strong and not published.

Many of the images verge on the surreal. The tuba-player whose face is hidden by the gaping metallic mouth of his instrument provides an image of alienation at the heart of the political circus. Frank uses the posters and placards of the convention to equally absurdist effect, often showing these objects as if they had acquired a life of their own. In one particularly poignant photograph, a poster showing the face of John Kennedy is abandoned, upside-down, among rows of deserted seating. In another, a hat left behind in a checkroom still proclaims its support for 'Adlai'.