Citizendia

For other uses, see Robert Frank (disambiguation). Robert Frank is an important figure in American photography and film
Robert Frank's noted book, The Americans (1958)
Robert Frank's noted book, The Americans (1958)

Robert Frank (born November 9, 1924), born in Zürich, Switzerland, is an important figure in American photography and film. Events 694 - Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims sentencing all Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Zürich (, Zürich German: Züri, Zurich, Zurigo; in English generally Zurich) is the largest city in Switzerland and capital of the Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Photography (fә'tɒgrәfi or fә'tɑːgrәfi (from Greek φωτο and γραφία is the process and Art of recording pictures by means of capturing His most notable work, the 1958 photographic book titled simply The Americans, was heavily influential in the post-war period, and earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and skeptical outsider's view of American society. Year 1958 ( MCMLVIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Americans, by Robert Frank, was a highly influential book in post-war American Photography. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Frank later expanded into film and video and experimented with compositing and manipulating photographs.

Contents

Background and early photography career

Frank was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Switzerland. Frank's mother, Rosa, was Swiss, but his father, Hermann, had become stateless after World War I and had to apply for the Swiss citizenship of Frank and his older brother, Manfred. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Though Frank and his family remained safe in Switzerland during World War II, the threat of Nazism nonetheless affected his understanding of oppression. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German He turned to photography in part as a means to escape the confines of his business-oriented family and home, and trained under a few photographers and graphic designers before he created his first hand-made book of photographs, 40 Fotos, in 1946. Year 1946 ( MCMXLVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Frank emigrated to the United States in 1947, and secured a job in New York City as a fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The City of New York Fashion refers to styles of dress (but can also include cuisine literature art architecture and general comportment that are popular in a culture at any given time Harper's Bazaar is a well-known American Fashion Magazine, first published in 1867 He soon left to travel in South America and Europe. South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a He created another hand-made book of photographs that he shot in Peru, and returned to the U. Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. S. in 1950. Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. That year was momentous for Frank, who after meeting Edward Steichen participated in the group show 51 American Photographers at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); he also married fellow artist, Mary Lockspeiser, with whom he had two children, Andrea and Pablo. Edward Steichen (March 27 1879 – March 25 1973 was an American photographer, painter, and Art gallery and Museum curator born The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, USA, on 53rd Street between Fifth Mary Frank (born in England in 1933 is a visual artist known primarily as a Sculptor.

Mabou by Robert Frank, from the 2004-2005 Tate Modern Storylines exhibition
Mabou by Robert Frank, from the 2004-2005 Tate Modern Storylines exhibition

Though he was initially optimistic about the United States, Frank's perspective quickly changed as he confronted the fast pace of American life and what he saw as an overemphasis on money. The Tate Modern in London is Britain 's national museum of international Modern art and is with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, He now saw America as an often bleak and lonely place, a perspective that became evident in his later photography. Frank's own dissatisfaction with the control editors exercised over his work also undoubtedly colored his experience. He continued to travel, moving his family briefly to Paris. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city In 1953, he returned to New York and continued to work as a freelance photojournalist for magazines including McCall's, Vogue, and Fortune. Year 1953 ( MCMLIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Photojournalism is a particular form of Journalism (the collecting editing and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast that creates images in order to tell McCall's was a monthly American women's Magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century peaking at a readership of six million Vogue is a Fashion and lifestyle Magazine published in eighteen countries by Condé Nast Publications. Fortune is a Global Business Magazine published by Time Inc's Fortune|Money Group

The Americans

Main article: The Americans (photography)

With the aid of his major artistic influence, the photographer Walker Evans, Frank secured a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1955 to travel across the United States and photograph its society at all strata. The Americans, by Robert Frank, was a highly influential book in post-war American Photography. For the off-road and NASCAR driver see Walker Evans (racer. Walker Evans ( November 3, 1903 &ndash April 10, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) He took his family along with him for part of his series of road trips over the next two years, during which time he took 28,000 shots. This article is about the film Road Trip For the PlayStation 2 video game see Road Trip Adventure. Only 83 of those were finally selected by him for publication in The Americans. Frank's journey was not without incident. While driving through Arkansas, Frank was arbitrarily thrown in jail after being stopped by the police; elsewhere in the South, he was told by a sheriff that he had "an hour to leave town. Arkansas ( is a state located in the southern region of the United States. The Deep South is a descriptive category of cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. "

Shortly after returning to New York in 1957, Frank met Beat writer Jack Kerouac on the sidewalk outside a party and showed him the photographs from his travels. Year 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar) Jack Kerouac ( March 12 1922 &ndash October 21 1969) was an American Novelist, Writer, Poet, and Kerouac immediately told Frank "Sure I can write something about these pictures," and he contributed the introduction to the U. S. edition of The Americans. Frank also became lifelong friends with Allen Ginsberg, and was one of the main visual artists to document the Beat subculture, which felt an affinity with Frank's interest in documenting the tensions between the optimism of the 1950s and the realities of class and racial differences. Irwin Allen Ginsberg (ˈgɪnzbɝg (June 3 1926 &ndash April 5 1997 was an American Poet. The irony that Frank found in the gloss of American culture and wealth over this tension gave Frank's photographs a clear contrast to those of most contemporary American photojournalists, as did his use of unusual focus, low lighting and cropping that deviated from accepted photographic techniques. Photojournalism is a particular form of Journalism (the collecting editing and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast that creates images in order to tell

This divergence from contemporary photographic standards gave Frank difficulty at first in securing an American publisher. Les Américains was first published in 1958 by Robert Delpire in Paris, and finally in 1959 in the United States by Grove Press, where it initially received substantial criticism. Year 1958 ( MCMLVIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The year 1959 ( MCMLIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951 Popular Photography, for one, derided his images as "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness. Popular Photography & Imaging, also called Popular Photography or Pop Photo, is a monthly American consumer magazine founded in 1937 " Though sales were also poor at first, Kerouac's introduction helped it reach a larger audience because of the popularity of the Beat phenomenon. Over time and through its inspiration of later artists, The Americans became a seminal work in American photography and art history, and is considered the work with which Frank is most clearly identified. Art history is the Academic study of objects of Art in their Historical development and stylistic contexts i In 1961, Frank received his first individual show, entitled Robert Frank: Photographer, at the Art Institute of Chicago. Year 1961 ( MCMLXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's premier Fine art museums He also showed at MoMA in New York in 1962. Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of The Americans, a new edition was released worldwide on May 30, 2008. Robert Frank discussed with his publisher, Gerhard Steidl, the idea of producing a new edition using modern scanning and the finest tritone printing. The starting point was to bring original prints from New York to Göttingen, Germany, where Steidl is based. In July 2007, Frank visited Göttingen. A new format for the book was worked out and new typography selected. A new cover was designed and Frank chose the book cloth, foil embossing and the endpaper. Most significantly, as he has done for every edition of The Americans, Frank changed the cropping of many of the photographs, usually including more information. Two images were changed completely from the original 1958 and 1959 editions. A celebratory exhibit of The Americans will be displayed in 2009 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D. This article is about the National Gallery of the United States for other National Galleries see National Gallery. C. , the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ( SFMOMA) is a major Modern art Museum and San Francisco Landmark. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, The new edition is published by Steidl and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and will be available in North America through D. A. P. /Distributed Art Publishers . DAP/Distributed Art Publishers Inc. is an American company that publishes books on art photography design and aesthetic culture [1]

Films

By the time The Americans was published in the United States, however, Frank had moved away from photography to concentrate on filmmaking. Among his films was the 1959 Pull My Daisy, which was written and narrated by Kerouac and starred Ginsberg and others from the Beat circle. Pull My Daisy ( 1959) is a short film that typifies the Beat Generation. The Beat philosophy emphasized spontaneity, and the film conveyed the quality of having been thrown together or even improvised. Pull My Daisy was accordingly praised for years as an improvisational masterpiece, until Frank's co-director, Alfred Leslie, revealed in a November 28, 1968 article in the Village Voice that the film was actually carefully planned, rehearsed, and directed by him and Frank, who shot the film with professional lighting. This article is about a New York newspaper For the Ottawa Hills Ohio magazine see The Village Voice of Ottawa Hills.

In 1960, Frank was staying in Fluxus artist George Segal's basement while filming Sin of Jesus with a grant from Walter K. Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Fluxus —a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media George Segal ( November 26, 1924, New York - June 9 2000, New Brunswick New Jersey was an American painter and Sculptor Gutman. Isaac Babel's story was transformed to center on a woman working on a chicken farm in New Jersey. Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel, Исаак Эммануилович Бабель ( – January 27, 1940) was a Soviet journalist playwright and short story writer who New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It was originally supposed to be filmed in six weeks in and around New Brunswick, but Frank ended up shooting for six months. New Brunswick ( French: Nouveau-Brunswick /nuvobʁɔnzwik/ is one of Canada 's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally

His 1972 documentary of the Rolling Stones, Cocksucker Blues, is arguably his best known film. Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Cocksucker Blues is an unreleased documentary film directed by Robert Frank chronicling The Rolling Stones ' North American tour in 1972 The film shows the Stones while on their '72 tour, engaging in heavy drug use and group sex. Group sex is Sexual behaviour involving more than two participants at the same time Perhaps more disturbing to the Stones when they saw the finished product, however, was the degree to which Frank faithfully captured the loneliness and despair of life on the road. Mick Jagger reportedly told Frank, "It's a fucking good film, Robert, but if it shows in America we'll never be allowed in the country again. Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, Kt (born 26 July 1943 is a Golden Globe -winning and two-time Grammy -winning English rock " The Stones sued to prevent the film's release, and it was disputed whether Frank as the artist or the Stones as those who hired the artist actually owned the copyright. Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for A court order resolved this with Solomonic wisdom by restricting the film to being shown no more than five times per year and only in the presence of Frank. The Judgment of Solomon is a Metaphorical expression referring to a wise judge who uses a stratagem to determine the truth tricking the parties into revealing their Franks' photography also appeared on the cover of the Rolling Stones' album Exile on Main St.. Exile on Main St is an album by the English rock band The Rolling Stones.

Other films by Robert Frank include "Keep Busy" and "Candy Mountain" which he co-directed with Rudy Wurlitzer.

Return to still images

Flamingo, exhibition catalog for Frank's 1996 Hasselblad Award show
Flamingo, exhibition catalog for Frank's 1996 Hasselblad Award show

Though Frank continued to be interested in film and video, he returned to still images in the 1970s, publishing his second photographic book, The Lines of My Hand, in 1972. This work has been described as a "visual autobiography", and consists largely of personal photographs. However, he largely gave up "straight" photography to instead create narratives out of constructed images and collages, incorporating words and multiple frames of images that were directly scratched and distorted on the negatives. A collage (From the coller to glue is a work of formal art primarily in the Visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms thus creating a new whole None of this later work has achieved an impact or notoriety comparable to that which The Americans achieved. As some critics have pointed out, this is perhaps because Frank began playing with constructed images more than a decade after Robert Rauschenberg introduced his silkscreen composites—in contrast to The Americans, Frank's later images simply were not beyond the pale of accepted technique and practice by that time.

Frank and Mary separated in 1969. Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He remarried to sculptor June Leaf, and in 1971, moved to the community of Mabou, Nova Scotia in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia in Canada. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Mabou is a small Canadian rural community located in Inverness County on the west coast of Nova Scotia 's Cape Breton Island. Cape Breton Island ( French: île du Cap-Breton - formerly île Royale, Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Cheap Breatuinn, Nova Scotia (ˌnəʊvəˈskəʊʃə ( Latin for New Scotland; Alba Nuadh Nouvelle-Écosse is a Canadian province located on Canada 's In 1974, tragedy struck when his daughter, Andrea, was killed in a plane crash in Tikal, Guatemala. Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. Guatemala (República de Guatemala) is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west the Pacific Ocean to the southwest Also around this time, his son, Pablo, was first hospitalized and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia ( from the Greek roots schizein (σχίζειν "to split" and phrēn Much of Frank's subsequent work has dealt with the impact of the loss of both his daughter and subsequently his son, who died in an Allentown, PA hospital in 1994. In 1995, he founded the Andrea Frank Foundation, which provides grants to artists. Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995

Since his move to Nova Scotia, Canada, Frank has divided his time between his home there in a former fisherman's shack on the coast, and his Bleecker Street loft in New York. Bleecker Street is a famous street in New York City 's Manhattan borough He has acquired a reputation for being a recluse (particularly since the death of Andrea), declining most interviews and public appearances. He has continued to accept eclectic assignments, however, such as photographing the 1984 Democratic National Convention, and directing music videos for artists such as New Order ("Run"), and Patti Smith ("Summer Cannibals"). Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. A music video is a Short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music most commonly a Song with lyrics New Order are an English rock group formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner ( vocals, Guitars Synthesizers, Peter Hook Patricia Lee Smith ( born December 30 1946 is an American Singer-songwriter and poet " Summer Cannibals " is a rock song written by Patti Smith and Fred "Sonic" Smith, and released as a lead single from Patti Smith Frank continues to produce both films and still images, and has helped organize several retrospectives of his art. In 1994, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC presented the most comprehensive retrospective of Frank's work to date, entitled Moving Out. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) This article is about the National Gallery of the United States for other National Galleries see National Gallery. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Frank was awarded the prestigious Hasselblad Award for photography in 1996. The Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography is an award granted to "a Photographer recognized for major achievements" Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) His 1997 award exhibition at the Hasselblad Center in Goteborg, Sweden was entitled Flamingo, as was the accompanying published catalog. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar Gothenburg ( Swedish:) /jœte'bɔrj/ is a city, a municipality, and an urban area on the west-coast of Sweden.

He is currently represented by the Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York.

Quotes

"When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice. " Robert Frank, LIFE (26 November 1951), p. 21

"Quality doesn't mean deep blacks and whatever tonal range. That's not quality, that's a kind of quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike someone as being sloppy - the tone range isn't right and things like that - but they're far superior to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard. But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that has something to do with what he's doing, what his mind is. It's not balancing out the sky to the sand and so forth. It's got to do with intention. " (Elliott Erwitt)

Further reading

Bibliographies

External links

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