Robert Frank: The Americans

Robert Frank: The Americans
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Manufacturer: Steidl/National Gallery of Art, Washington
Average Customer Rating: Average rating of 5.0/5Average rating of 5.0/5Average rating of 5.0/5Average rating of 5.0/5Average rating of 5.0/5

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 770
EAN: 9783865215840
ISBN: 386521584X
Label: Steidl/National Gallery of Art, Washington
Manufacturer: Steidl/National Gallery of Art, Washington
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 180
Publication Date: 2008-05-15
Publisher: Steidl/National Gallery of Art, Washington
Release Date: 2008-05-15
Studio: Steidl/National Gallery of Art, Washington

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Editorial Reviews:

Armed with a camera and a fresh cache of film and bankrolled by a Guggenheim Foundation grant, Robert Frank crisscrossed the United States during 1955 and 1956. The photographs he brought back form a portrait of the country at the time and hint at its future. He saw the hope of the future in the faces of a couple at city hall in Reno, Nevada, and the despair of the present in a grimy roofscape. He saw the roiling racial tension, glamour, and beauty, and, perhaps because Frank himself was on the road, he was particularly attuned to Americans' love for cars. Funeral-goers lean against a shiny sedan, lovers kiss on a beach blanket in front of their parked car, young boys perch in the back seat at a drive-in movie. A sports car under a drop cloth is framed by two California palm trees; on the next page, a blanket is draped over a car accident victim's body in Arizona.

Robert Frank's Americans reappear 40 years after they were initially published in this exquisite volume by Scalo. Each photograph (there are more than 80 of them) stands alone on a page, while the caption information is included at the back of the book, allowing viewers an unfettered look at the images. Jack Kerouac's original introduction, commissioned when the photographer showed the writer his work while sitting on a sidewalk one night outside of a party, provides the only accompanying text. Kerouac's words add narrative dimension to Frank's imagery while in turn the photographs themselves perfectly illustrate the writer's own work.


Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: Slices of American Life
Comment: Captured moments of Amercian Life, often shown here with an American flag in the photo. These images in this book portray a visual artist who is creating photos by shifting angles, waiting for the right moment, using light in a different way. Its tough to describe this book other than to say that it was edited pretty well.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: There's more to Frank than just The Americans
Comment: This is a wonderful monograph of Frank's early work, presented in a highly innovative sequence of images based loosly on formal and thematic topics. The book's meaning grows and changes with every read. Although it is hailed as a seminal work of progressive street photography now, it was not so warmly received in its postwar days. For instance, in 1960 a critic for Popular Photography called it, "A sad poem for a sick people." However, Frank maintained an aloof political stance and managed to escape McCarthyism's career-ending scrutiny, unlike many of his coleagues.
If you like this book, you might enjoy Walker Evans' "American Photographs" and Tod Papageorge's comparison of the two photo-books. Also see Frank's later works, as seen in the retrospective "The Lines of My Hand" and such extensive exhibition catalogues as "Hold Still-Keep Going" and "Moving Out." Frank's later body of work reveals a preoccupation with the passage of time, perhaps inspired by his 40+ years in film. These photos also bear negative scratching, collage, over-painting, and the deliberate addition of text--all of which vastly different from his Americans-era images. Although these photographic accomplishments, stunning in their own right, have been ignored by scholarship for some time, the 1990s establishment of the Robert Frank Collection at the National Gallery promises to preserve as well as present Frank's later works in a new and interesting light.

Also:
Dear Benjamin,

Per your inquiry, Robert Frank's book was published in Switzerland because the photographer is SWISS. Scalo has made an effort to publish most of Frank's books in his home country, as well as the US, England, France, Canada (where he lives now), etc. Frank emigrated to the US in 1947 and became an American citizen in 1963. Knowing these simple facts might help you examine this work with renewed clarity. Also, people in Switzerland enjoy books just as much as Americans. Perhaps you should conduct some research every now and again, it might make you look less ignorant.


Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: My Life
Comment: I've been a professional photographer, still in love with photography after 40 years shooting, still shooting every day. Thank you Robert Frank. You've had a vision that is the best photography book ever done, I wish I could do it!!!!

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Que maravilla de libro de fotografía.
Comment: Si os gusta la fotografía de reportaje compradlo sin reservas.
No tiene desperdicio, ojalá encuentro más libros de fotógrafos como Robert Frank.
Muy bueno.
Un saludo desde España a todos los hispanos.


Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Moving Stills
Comment: This book is the real thing, it should be part of any collection of outstanding photography books. Robert Frank shoots beautifully and unselfconciously, this is exemplary photojournalism that takes a viewer into the deep waters of the truly gifted.


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