Robert Frank: The Americans
Description
First published in France in 1958, then in the United States in 1959, Robert Frank's The Americans changed the course of 20th-century photography
First published in France in 1958, then in the United States in 1959, Robert Frank's The Americans changed the course of twentieth-century photography. In 83 photographs, Frank looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a people plagued by racism, ill-served by their politicians and rendered numb by a rapidly expanding culture of consumption. Yet he also found novel areas of beauty in simple, overlooked corners of American life. And it was not just Frank's subject matter--cars, jukeboxes and even the road itself--that redefined the icons of America; it was also his seemingly intuitive, immediate, off-kilter style, as well as his method of brilliantly linking his photographs together thematically, conceptually, formally and linguistically, that made The Americans so innovative. More of an ode or a poem than a literal document, the book is as powerful and provocative today as it was 56 years ago.Product Details
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About the Author
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was an American novelist and poet who influenced generations of writers. He is recognized for his style of spontaneous prose and for his being a pioneer of the Beat Generation. His first novel appeared in 1950, but it was On the Road, published in 1957, that epitomized to the world the beat philosophy. This novel created a sensation by chronicling a spontaneous and wandering way of life in a style that seemed founded both on jazz and on drug-induced visions. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1922. He attended local Catholic schools and eventually Columbia University. He published eighteen novels and several collections of his poetry.
Reviews
...Robert Frank changed history with the 83 images that appeared in his stark breakthrough "The Americans.--Sam Whiting "SFGate "
That is the miracle of great socially committed art: It addresses our sources of deepest unease, helps us to confront what we cannot organize or explain by making all of it unforgettable.--Nicholas Dawidoff "The New York Times Magazine "
The exhibition is as comprehensive as it is ephemeral featuring a wealth of photographs, all of Frank's books since 1947, and his films that he began focusing on in the early 1960s.--Lisa Contag "Artinfo "
The photographs from his seminal book The Americans, which took a critical look at our nation's life in the 1950s, are timeless. His work continues to inspire new generations to follow his path to see what is invisible in America.--L'Oeil de la Photographie
[Frank] pioneered a whole new subject matter that we [now] define as icons: cars, jukeboxes, even the road itself.--Scott Indrisek "Artsy "
The Americans challenged the presiding midcentury formula for photojournalism. Mr. Frank's photographs -- of lone individuals, teenage couples, groups at funerals and odd spoors of cultural life -- were cinematic, immediate, off-kilter and grainy, like early television transmissions of the period.--Philip Gefter "New York Times "
