Robert Frank, The Americans. Manchester: Cornerhouse Publications, 1993. Paperback, 180 p. 21,5 x 24 cm. Eighty-three black and white photographs, one per page, with an introduction by Jack Kerouac.
Originally published by Robert Delpire, Paris, 1958, and by Grove Press, New York, 1959. First Cornerhouse edition, 1993 in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
A quality reprint of this iconic book of photographs, Robert Frank's masterpiece shot with a Leica 35 mm in 1955-1956 when on a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Frank shot 767 rolls of film, making 27.000 pictures. From a selection of 1.000 prints, he eventually picked 83 images.
The book not only helped to define the America of the 1950s, Frank changed the way photographers took pictures and how Americans viewed themselves. As a Swiss national, he looked at the country from an outsider perspective, distorting the documentary tradition by introducing skepticism and subjectivity. Many of the photos show ordinary, simple people going about their daily business, often unaware of the photographer and annoyed when they are. Frank's blurry, grainy and gritty signature style fundamentally changed the aesthetics.
A very good + copy of the first British paperback edition. Cover showing very light shelfwear. Lower edge lightly soiled. Price sticker (Fnac) on back cover, corner slightly bumped, but barely visible.
From the introduction by Jack Kerouac: 'The humor, the sadness, the EVERYTHINGness and American-ness of these pictures! Tall thin cowboy rolling butt outside Madison Square Garten New York for rodeo season, sad, spindly, unbelievable - Long shot of night road narrowing forlorn into immensities and flat of impossible-to-believe America in New Mexico under the prisoner's moon - under the whang whang guitar star - Haggard old frowsy dames of Los Angeles leaning peering out the right front window of Old Paw's car on a Sunday gawking and criticizing to explain Amerikay to little children in the spattered back seat - tattooed guy sleeping on grass in park in Cleveland...'