Hi, >> The general opinion was that >> the later work is rather difficult and perhaps too personal to Robert >> Frank to resonate with others in the same way as the photos of the >> 'The Americans' period.
> "The Americans" doesn't resonate with me ... > (perhaps I am too young or something) it's an important book because it marked a turning point in the way documentary photography could be produced. It was financed largely by a Guggenheim grant rather than as a piece of commercial work for a magazine, and the whole book was treated as the project, rather than the individual photographs. Some people credit the editor, Robert Delpire, at least as much as the photographer with the revolutionary nature of the work. According to Chris Boot's introduction in 'Magnum Stories', 'The Americans' was a huge influence on Magnum and its approach to documentary photography, and its ability to be independent of the magazine world. At the same time the book captured and contributed much to the freewheeling spirit of the time that is also captured by Kerouac in 'On the Road'. > I mean, if you had made that whole comment about the "Americans"-era work as > well, I'd've agreed. I think I did. At least, that's what I meant by "'The Americans' period". Frank at the time was pretty much in the same stream as the Magnum photographers, showing a humanist approach to documentary photography and looking at the working classes and their attempt to recover from the effects of WW2. The exhibition also includes photographs from Paris, London, Wales and Peru made in the 1940s and 50s. > Just thinking "aloud". Disclaimer: "The Americans" is the only Robert Frank > material I have seen. The later material could almost be by a different person. It's as if Frank underwent some kind of experience which completely changed his outlook. His focus seems to turn inwards on himself and his own life, and the work stops being straight documentary/reportage and becomes Art. At that point (in my opinion) it stops being good photography, and never becomes good art. I will try to find out if something did happen in his life to make this apparent sudden change of direction. There was a period in 1987 when he photographed Birmingham, Alabama on commission where he kind of returned to the earlier documentary style, and I liked that series, but otherwise the later work went right past me. Bob -- Cheers, Bob
