Sounds of the Americans is an audiovisual experiment involving photographer Robert Frank's landmark book, The Americans. The following sounds and accompanying images are the result of a 2-step transformative process:
Convert each photograph into audio using specialized software
Take the same audio and feed it through a spectrograph in order to recreate the original image
Photographs (or any other form of imagery) can be converted into audio. The photo's tones and forms are translated into various frequencies. Depending on the visual complexity of the image, the sounds generated will range from tranquil to chaotic, from peaceful to ominous, from soft to severe.
We can also regenerate the original photograph using its respective audio. With the aid of spectrograph software, the sound of each photo creates a crude and murky approximation of the initial image. The level of degradation varies depending on how the sound gets interpreted by the software. The result is a type of image that is both familiar and yet no longer photographic in its nature.
All 83 photographs contained within the pages of The Americans have undergone this process and are presented here in the book's original running order. While many of their details have become obscured to the point of being lost, the layer of audio allows the viewer/listener to experience the images in an entirely new manner, perhaps leading to different interpretations and unintended meanings.
Parade — Hoboken, New Jersey
City fathers — Hoboken, New Jersey
Political rally — Chicago
Funeral — St. Helena, South Carolina
Rodeo — Detroit
Savannah, Georgia
Navy Recruiting Station, Post Office — Butte, Montana
En route from New York to Washington, Club Car
Movie premiere — Hollywood
Candy store — New York City
Motorama — Los Angeles
New York City
Charleston, South Carolina
Ranch market — Hollywood
Butte, Montana
Yom Kippur — East River, New York City
Fourth of July — Jay, New York
Trolley — New Orleans
Canal Street — New Orleans
Rooming house — Bunker Hill, Los Angeles
Yale Commencement — New Haven Green, New Haven, Connecticut
Cafe — Beaufort, South Carolina
Georgetown, South Carolina
Bar — Las Vegas, Nevada
Hotel Lobby — Miami Beach
View from hotel window — Butte, Montana
Metropolitan Life Insurance Building — New York City
Jehovah's Witness — Los Angeles
Bar — Gallup, New Mexico
U.S. 30 between Ogallala and North Platte, Nebraska
Casino — Elko, Nevada
U.S. 91, leaving Blackfoot, Idaho
St. Petersburg, Florida
Covered car — Long Beach, California
Car accident — U.S. 66, between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona
U.S. 285, New Mexico
Bar — Detroit
Barber shop through screen door — McClellanville, South Carolina
Backyard — Venice West, California
Newburgh, New York
Luncheonette — Butte, Montana
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Bar — New York City
Elevator — Miami Beach
Restaurant — U.S. 1 leaving Columbia, South Carolina
Drive-in movie — Detroit
Mississipi River, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
San Francis, gas station, and City Hall — Los Angeles
Crosses at scene of highway accident — U.S. 91, Idaho
Assembly line — Detroit
Convention hall — Chicago
Men's room, railway station — Memphis, Tennessee
Cocktail party — New York City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Beaufort, South Carolina
Funeral — St. Helena, South Carolina
Chinese cemetary — San Francisco
Political rally — Chicago
Store window — Washington, D.C.
Television Studio — Burbank California
Los Angeles
Bank — Houston, Texas
Factory, Detroit
Department store — Lincoln, Nebraska
Rodeo — New York, City
Movie premiere — Hollywood
Charity ball — New York City
Cafeteria — San Francisco
Drug Store — Detroit
Coffee shop, railway station — Indianapolis
Chattanooga, Tennessee
San Francisco
Belle Isle — Detroit
Public Park — Cleveland, Ohio
Courthouse square — Elizabethville, South Carolina
Picnic ground — Glendale, California
Belle Isle — Detroit
Detroit
Chicago
Public park — Ann Arbor, Michigan
City Hall — Reno, Nevada
Indianapolis
U.S. 90, en route to Del Rio, Texas
