A great short video on Robert Frank

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I could image Frank being a young, wide-eyed Swiss seeing America for the first time with his camera.
https://petapixel.com/2018/12/07/robert-frank-on-shooting-his-seminal-photo-book-the-americans/

 

[Louis Nargi]

What a great little video so much to learn in 3.5 min.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

What a great little video so much to learn in 3.5 min.

I learned a lot too. Stay curious!

 

[pentaxuser]

He certainly makes a great case for carrying a camera at all times. I cannot really envisage what he looked like as a young man but in the video there is more I got the impression that he blended-in well. If you have an aura of just another passer-by then you can minimise your impact on the scene. This both protects you and means that what you take was not influenced by your presence

pentaxuser

 

[jtk]

Frank was Jewish, had a heavy German accent, was photographing, and cops thought he might be a communist.

That "aura" would have attracted attention in most of the US...i doubt he "blended-in" well in fly-over states.

 

[Pieter12]

Not to take away from the content of the video but it makes me sad to see (I am supposing) the interviewer has given Frank what looks like single-weight digital prints to comment from.

 

[removed account4]

you always find great videos
=
MCM i hope you don't mind me
including a link from a NYT article to this thread
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/robert-franks-america.html
it is a pretty good read, has photographs of him when he was young too

 

[slackercrurster]

Not to take away from the content of the video but it makes me sad to see (I am supposing) the interviewer has given Frank what looks like single-weight digital prints to comment from.

Frank's vintage Americans prints are $500,000+ each.

 

[slackercrurster]

See 'Don't Blink' and 'AN AMERICAN JOURNEY: IN ROBERT FRANK'S FOOTSTEPS'

 

[slackercrurster]

Here are some of Frank's proof sheets from the Americans.

https://danieldteolijrarchivalcolle...bert-frank-the-rejected-americans-you-choose/

 

[Pieter12]

vintage Americans prints are half a million+ $$.

They could have used the book...the close-up shots look like they are from prints.

 

[Pioneer]

Frank's vintage Americans prints are $500,000+ each.

Yes. As Robert Frank has already shown, there is really no accounting for American tastes.

 

[Colin Corneau]

See 'Don't Blink' and 'AN AMERICAN JOURNEY: IN ROBERT FRANK'S FOOTSTEPS'

+1.
"Don't Blink" was a PHENOMENALLY good film. Taught me more about Frank than his book did.

 

[Colin Corneau]

Yes. As Robert Frank has already shown, there is really no accounting for American tastes.

Any art - in fact, any *thing* - is only worth what people are willing to pay for it.

Gold is useless as a metal. It's not good for anything except looking pretty. Ditto for most female movie stars under 30.

 

[removed account4]

Any art - in fact, any *thing* - is only worth what people are willing to pay for it.

Gold is useless as a metal. It's not good for anything except looking pretty. Ditto for most female movie stars under 30.

years ago ( IDK 20? ) i corresponded with jsg boggs. same sort of thing nothing is worth anything except what someone is willing to exchange for it
when he just drew stuff and people gave him stuff for the stuff he drew.. kind of weird he's not around anymore... really weird.
https://www.toutfait.com/issues/volume2/issue_4/articles/velthuis/velthuis1.html

 

[Pioneer]

Any art - in fact, any *thing* - is only worth what people are willing to pay for it.

Gold is useless as a metal. It's not good for anything except looking pretty. Ditto for most female movie stars under 30.

I have to disagree regarding the usefulness of Gold as a metal. It is a critical element in the manufacture of many electronics as well as within the health industry. Of course that totally ignores its historical role as a storehouse of wealth. In fact, it is only been recently, when stock markets and stock ownership have become more and more important as a measure of wealth, where Gold has lost some of its "luster". At least that is what many of our politicians would have you believe, at the same time that many bankers and countries are frantically repurchasing many of the physical gold assets that they chose to sell off a few years ago.

 

[Pioneer]

I could image Frank being a young, wide-eyed Swiss seeing America for the first time with his camera.
https://petapixel.com/2018/12/07/robert-frank-on-shooting-his-seminal-photo-book-the-americans/

Thank you for the link. Very interesting.

Contrary to what he says in this video I have to say that his photos in The Americans do not speak to me of a young, wide-eyed Swiss. Rather I see a disillusioned young immigrant in a country he didn't understand and really didn't like very well. America in the 1950s was exploding in population as well as economically. It certainly was not the staid, traditional, Switzerland he had grown up in.

 

[awty]

Brilliant works.

 

[jtk]

Thank you for the link. Very interesting.

Contrary to what he says in this video I have to say that his photos in The Americans do not speak to me of a young, wide-eyed Swiss. Rather I see a disillusioned young immigrant in a country he didn't understand and really didn't like very well. America in the 1950s was exploding in population as well as economically. It certainly was not the staid, traditional, Switzerland he had grown up in.

We see what we're predisposed to see.

Frank was a budding beatnik, far from being "disillusionized." Kerouac, now the definitive beatnik, arguably loved America. Frank, like Kerouac SAW America, had no illusions to lose.

Every one of the flag-waving Americans Frank photographed had lost someone they loved, or at least someone they knew of... who died saving Europe from itself. Frank invested his life photographing America. Kerouac narrated Pull My Daisy, Frank's film.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...=8d1e037ea9c64f08e7646a9cc9edd066&action=view directed by Frank.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Thank you for the link. Very interesting.

Contrary to what he says in this video I have to say that his photos in The Americans do not speak to me of a young, wide-eyed Swiss. Rather I see a disillusioned young immigrant in a country he didn't understand and really didn't like very well. America in the 1950s was exploding in population as well as economically. It certainly was not the staid, traditional, Switzerland he had grown up in.

Interesting observation. I think you may be correct. I'd imagine Switzerland was a very rigid and closed society and some like Frank was seeking a new life. America was quite the opposite in some respects. America attracted misfits and the brave seeking a better life.

 

[Pioneer]

We see what we're predisposed to see.

Frank was a budding beatnik, far from being "disillusionized." Kerouac, now the definitive beatnik, arguably loved America. Frank, like Kerouac SAW America, had no illusions to lose.

Every one of the flag-waving Americans Frank photographed had lost someone they loved, or at least someone they knew of... who died saving Europe from itself. Frank invested his life photographing America. Kerouac narrated Pull My Daisy, Frank's film.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...=8d1e037ea9c64f08e7646a9cc9edd066&action=view directed by Frank.

Thanks for that link jtk.

You see what you want to see and I see what I do. We'll leave it at that.

Enjoy your Holidays

 

[DonJ]

Any art - in fact, any *thing* - is only worth what people are willing to pay for it.

Gold is useless as a metal. It's not good for anything except looking pretty. Ditto for most female movie stars under 30.

Useless? More than 30% of the gold that's mined is used in electronics. It's used in many ways in space vehicles, even as a lubricant. It also has medical uses.

 

[Julian Ribinik]

nice information!!