Robert Frank
author · photographer
Robert Frank was a Swiss-American photographer and documentary filmmaker, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of 20th-century photography. Born in Zurich in 1924, Frank emigrated to the United States in 1947, where he initially worked in fashion photography for Harper's Bazaar. He is most celebrated for his seminal photobook, 'The Americans' (1958/1959), which captured a gritty, melancholic, and nuanced outsider's view of postwar American society. Frank's work was pivotal in redefining the aesthetic of documentary photography, moving away from romanticism toward a more raw and personally expressive visual language. He was associated with the 'Beat Circle' and is noted for his ability to capture the alienation and heartbreak of the American landscape.[1,2,3,4]
- Americana
- alienation
- postwar American landscape
- documentary
- melancholy
Robert Frank and Les Américains
A sourced account of Robert Frank’s authoritative identity and the 1958 French-language publication of his Americans project.
The photographer in this catalogue is identified by the New York Public Library’s Photographers’ Identities Catalog, PIC ID 4829: Robert Frank, an American photographer and film/video artist, born in Zürich on 9 November 1924 and dead in Inverness, Nova Scotia, on 9 September 2019. PIC also links the identity to Getty ULAN and VIAF. The Whitney Museum of American Art independently identifies the artist as Robert Frank (1924–2019) and gives Getty ULAN identifier 500019916.
Frank emigrated to the United States in 1947, according to the Whitney’s Getty-derived artist information. In 1955 he travelled across the United States with Guggenheim support; the Whitney records that he used a Ford coupe to crisscross the country and photograph it. Those travels are the immediate background to The Americans.
The catalogue connection: Les Américains
The linked catalogue book, Les Américains (Paris, 1958), belongs to the publication history of the project known in English as The Americans. The National Gallery of Art states that Frank’s 1955–56 journey was the basis for The Americans, and that all 83 photographs reproduced in the book were shown in its 2009 exhibition Looking In. Its exhibition, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the American publication, also displayed contact sheets, books, documents, and letters by Walker Evans and Jack Kerouac; curator Sarah Greenough’s accompanying catalogue is identified on the same institutional page.
The 1958 French title should not be treated as a separate photographic project. The catalogue record supplies its publication date and place, while the NGA’s account documents the 1955–56 journey and the eventual selection of 83 images for The Americans. The book’s form was central enough to Frank’s working history that the NGA included a film in which he physically destroyed copies of it in the exhibition’s final section.
The Whitney notes that The Americans initially drew criticism as “un-American,” while its artist record traces Frank’s later activity across photography, filmmaking, and collage. The book remains the clearest catalogue entry point because it joins the journey and the edit in a single publication.
Sources
Books
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A Dialogue With Solitude€175.00 -
Black white and things€45.00 -
Flamingo€13.00 -
Hold still - keep going€15.00 -
Les Américains€1,568.00 -
London/Wales€31.00 -
Moving Out€13.00 -
New York to Nova Scotia€45.00
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Paris€15.00
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Storylines€36.00 -
Thank you€20.00
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The Americans€24.00 -
The Americans€76.00 -
The Americans€39.00 -
The Lines of my Hand€50.00
Works by Robert Frank
- 1958 The Americans First published in France in 1959.
- 1946 40 Fotos Handmade book.
- 1994 Black white and things
- 1981 Robert Frank: Thirteen Pictures of New York
Works about Robert Frank
- 2017 American Witness: The Art and Life of Robert Frank Unauthorized biography.
Exhibitions
- 2019 Robert Frank. Unseen
- 1981 Robert Frank
- 1981 Robert Frank: Thirteen Pictures of New York
References
- Robert Frank. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation link
- Robert Frank. The Museum of Modern Art link
- Robert Frank. Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica link
- Biography and Bibliography. Robert Frank Foundation link
- RJ Smith. American Witness: The Art and Life of Robert Frank. Da Capo Press. 2017 link