Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => But is it Art? => Topic started by: Gulag on July 03, 2015, 02:31:28 am
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“The Man Who Saw America:
Looking back with Robert Frank, the most influential photographer alive.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/robert-franks-america.html
—Photo: Robert Frank in Mabou, Nova Scotia, in June. Credit: Katy Grannan for The New York Times
(http://41.media.tumblr.com/9ba3d6c25310cb0d7a97e575bba21ee0/tumblr_nqvn5yBpOI1suhwyqo1_1280.jpg)
Robert Frank in Mabou, Nova Scotia, in June.
KATY GRANNAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
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+1!
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Saw this yesterday and scarfed it right down. :) Great article. My dad was a big Robert Frank fan…inherited taste on my part, I guess.
There are bits & pieces of C**ksucker Blues, Frank's (officially suppressed) Rolling Stones documentary, on YouTube. Worth taking a look. (Used to have the whole thing on VHS bootleg…sadly broke years ago.)
-Dave-
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Thanks for sharing this, looks like a really great article about a great man, going to devour this tonight with a glass of Islay Malt ;-)
Best Regards, Sander
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Frank is one of my fav's.
In the photos for the articles he usually looks like a pauper, but he is actually very well off.
Here is a tidbit about the Americans
"During his trip, Frank shot 767 rolls of film yielding about 27,000 images. He edited that down to about 1,000 work prints, spread them across the floor of his studio and tacked them to the walls for a final edit. Out of a year and a half of work, Frank chose just 83 images."
http://www.npr.org/2009/02/13/100688154/americans-the-book-that-changed-photography
I wish he would come out with another 'Americans' composed of 150 or so of the rejects from the pile of 1000 work prints. He could call it The Rejected Americans.
Take a look at the beloved Winogrand for comparison to Frank. Winogrand produced absolute crap and called it his first rate stuff.
http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/image/123327010893
http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/image/123326924403
http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/image/123326876938
...and the ignorant, young photogs coming up latch on to Winogrand like he was some kind of photo god. Well, I guess he was a god, at least in the area of producing tons of garbage.
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Frank is one of my fav's.
In the photos for the articles he usually looks like a pauper, but he is actually very well off.
Here is a tidbit about the Americans
"During his trip, Frank shot 767 rolls of film yielding about 27,000 images. He edited that down to about 1,000 work prints, spread them across the floor of his studio and tacked them to the walls for a final edit. Out of a year and a half of work, Frank chose just 83 images."
http://www.npr.org/2009/02/13/100688154/americans-the-book-that-changed-photography
I wish he would come out with another 'Americans' composed of 150 or so of the rejects from the pile of 1000 work prints. He could call it The Rejected Americans.
Take a look at the beloved Winogrand's editing process for comparison to Frank. Winogrand produced absolute crap and called it his first rate stuff.
http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/image/123327010893
http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/image/123326924403
http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/image/123326876938
...and the ignorant, young photogs coming up latch on to Winogrand like he was some kind of photo god. Well, I guess he was a god, at least in the area of producing tons of garbage.
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I like Winogrand as well as Frank. Different approaches & intents. Both IMO great at their best. YMMV, which is perfectly fine. But beware of pedlling personal taste as objective truth.
-Dave-
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It simply confirms what Louis Kronenberger had observed - "Art, for most Americans, is a very queer fish - it can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bribed, it can’t be doled out or duplicated; above all, it can’t be cashed in on."
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I like Winogrand as well as Frank. Different approaches & intents. Both IMO great at their best. YMMV, which is perfectly fine. But beware of pedlling personal taste as objective truth.
-Dave-
+1, and posting ones opinion twice doesn't make it any stronger either ;)
Also thanks to the OP for the link, indeed a fascinating article.
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I remember the Popular Photography issue in the late fifties in which various photographers panned Frank's work. I didn't agree with them, and as it turned out, I was right. "The Americans" showed the America with which, at 29 or so, I was familiar. Life was an interesting magazine, but it was selective, and it avoided some painful truths. Partly because of Frank's work, we eventually learned to embrace the whole story: the stunning beauty of American life, even with its warts.
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Great read.
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Wow. I've never heard of this guy, and I loved that article and his shots.