Robert Frank, the legendary Swiss-born American photographer who single-handedly changed turned the photographic world on its head, just passed away yesterday at his home in Nova Scotia. He was 94.
@everybodyfilm
An impressive career
Though Frank delved successfully into cinematography, he was most notable for his work as a photographer, particularly his groundbreaking 1958 book, The Americans.
The Americans credited with changing the face of the industry and influencing a whole new generation of photographers, no longer bound to the rules of the “pre-Frankian” era established by artists like Henri Cartier-Bresson. Frank broke with that tradition, and in the process gave America a fresh and insightful portrait of a decaying world that captured the essence of its culture like no other work before it.
Frank’s work, especially in The Americans, focused on those living on the margins of society—the poor, in particular. As such, Frank essentially captured the raw, simple reality that perfectly illustrated the great distance between the advertised American dream and the actual face of the U.S.
Throughout its 83 black-and-white photographs, the book shows a society riddled with racism and a failing political system, providing a penetrating criticism more powerful than most any other. As critic Sean O’Hagan wrote, 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.”
@dickmunro
Photographer and filmmaker
Frank also successfully explored the world of filmmaking, releasing several films throughout his career. Pull My Daisy (1959), for example, was praised as a masterclass in improvisation, though it was later revealed it was thoroughly planned. It was written and narrated by the popular author of On the Road, Jack Kerouac—who also wrote a memorable introduction for The Americans.
@womenstreetphotographersIn a 2004 interview with The Guardian, Frank said about photography that “There’s no point in it any more for me, and I get no satisfaction from trying to do it. There are too many pictures now. It’s overwhelming.”
Imagine what he thought of our current Instagram-frenzied world.
(Cover photo: @c41labs)
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