Robert Frank

Robert Frank was an American photographer and film maker who was born in 9th November 1924 in Zurich, Switzerland. He then later immigrated to America in 1947. He published a book called ‘The Americans’ in France in 1958 and the following year in America. The book was centred on post war events after Second World War. The book shows the images of America during 1950s. Although the book remains one of the most important photography books, it created controversy when it was published because it changed the classic way of looking into an image; he took images from different perspectives, which was new to people. There were only 83 images in the book; ‘The Americans’ but he actually had about 27,000 images and had to narrow it down just to 83 for the book on his trip around America. In response to Robert Frank’s book, John Szarkowski said; ‘It is difficult to remember how shocking Robert Frank's book was, The pictures took us by ambush then ... He established a new iconography for contemporary America, comprised of bits of bus depots, lunch counters, strip developments, empty spaces, cars, and unknowable faces.’
He also took pictures of Welsh miners. He once said 'Black and white is the vision of hope and despair, this is what I want in my photograph.'


To the world the book showed the deprived and struggling America, which was just recovering from the Second World War. People weren’t expecting the pictures that he took at that time to be associated with America because people dreamt of American Dream, which no longer looked achievable.






Bibliography
http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Robert-Frank.html

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/04/frank200804