Robert Frank: The Lines of My Hand

by Robert Frank (Photographer)

After The Americans , The Lines of My Hand is arguably Robert Frank’s most important book, and without doubt the publication that established his autobiographical, sometimes confessional, approach to bookmaking. The book was originally published by Yugensha in Tokyo in 1972, and this new Steidl edition, made in close collaboration with Frank, follows and updates the first US edition by Lustrum Press of 1972. The Lines of My Hand is structured chronologically and presents selections from every stage of Frank’s work until 1972―from early photos in Switzerland in 1945–46, to images of his travels in Peru, Paris, Valencia, London and Wales, and to contact sheets from his 1955–56 journey through the US that resulted in The Americans . Here too are intimate photos of Frank’s young family, later photo-collages and stills from films including Pull My Daisy and About A Musical .

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art

102 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled The Americans, earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and nuanced outsider's view of American society. Critic Sean O'Hagan, writing in The Guardian in 2014, said The Americans "changed the nature of photography, what it could say and how it could say it. [ ... ] it remains perhaps the most influential photography book of the 20th century." Frank later expanded into film and video and experimented with manipulating photographs and photomontage.

Reviews

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Self-curated career retrospective. So many revelations, especially among the early work which proves as striking as anything from Frank's classic book "The Americans." His remarkable films remain under-seen and under-rated and it's nice they're given space here, too. I still struggle with some of the later assemblage photographs with text, but the book places them in a helpful context.

[Jomar Canales Conde · Rating 5 out of 5]

genius!!!

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really giving this a 3.5. Frank is a master at reinventing the retrospective book. This was one of the first, and certainly a treat.

[Alfonso de Castro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno de los libros de fotografía más bellos e inteligentes que conozco.