Within months of arriving in New York for the first time, Frank was hired as a fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar. He found the work frustrating: 'There was no spirit there. The only thing that mattered was to make more money. I knew that I could not gain by staying in that atmosphere very much longer. So I went to South America... I went to Peru to satisfy my own nature, to be free to work for myself.'

From June to December 1948, Frank travelled in Peru and Bolivia, choosing his own subjects without regard for deadlines or the demands of editors. 'I was making a kind of diary. I was very free with the camera. I didn't think of what would be the correct thing to do; I did what I felt good doing. I was like an action painter.'

Frank's photographs from Peru document vast landscapes, weathered faces, backbreaking manual labour and dusty roads that stretch to the horizon. Using a handheld 35mm Leica camera, he was able to create a sense of spontaneity and movement, pushing the viewer into the midst of the crowd.

Frank assembled the photographs into two books, each with the same images but in a slightly different sequence. He gave one copy to his mother and the other to Alexey Brodovitch, the art director at Harper's Bazaar. Rather than creating a linear narrative in his books, Frank was already experimenting with his own distinctive sequencing, drawing out visual patterns and resonances between each successive image.