Robert Frank : Storylines

by Philip Brookman

Robert Frank (1924-) is one of the most influential of the post-war photographers. Emigrating to the US in 1947, he began working in fashion and the advertising industry for magazines like Life, Fortune and The New York Times. A year later he left to travel through South America and Europe, shooting in Peru, Bolivia, London, Wales and France. Some of these images were published in Life and in the book Indiens Pas Morts. In 1955 he became the first European photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship. He used it to take a road-trip across the States, shooting scenes of ordinary American life, deliberately retaining the imperfections of the printing process in stark contrast to the perfectionism of contemporaries like Ansel Adams and Minor White. The resulting book, The Americans, radically changed the language of photography, gave rise to a new distinct art form in the photo-book and questioned the authority of the photograph as document. Published to accompany the major retrospective exhibition of Frank in the UK, Robert Frank will survey a career that has continued to develop and break new ground since the 1950s. Photographs from locations including Peru, London, Wales, Detroi

Genres: Photography

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004