Robert Frank: The Americans

First published in France in 1958, then the United States in 1959, Robert Frank's The Americans changed the course of twentieth-century photography. In eighty-three photographs, Frank looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a people plagued by racism, ill-served by their politicians, and rendered numb by a rapidly expanding culture of consumption. Yet he also found novel areas of beauty in simple, overlooked corners of American life. And it was not just his subject matter - cars, jukeboxes, and even the road itself - that redefined the icons of America; it was also his seemingly intuitive, immediate, off-kilter style, as well as his method of brilliantly linking his photographs together thematically, conceptually, formally, and linguistically, that made The Americans so innovative. More of an ode or a poem than a literal document, the book is as powerful and provocative today as it was fifty-five years ago.

Review :
The photographs from his seminal book The Americans, which took a critical look at our nation's life in the 1950s, are timeless. His work continues to inspire new generations to follow his path to see what is invisible in America.-- "L'Oeil de la Photographie" Each portrait tells its own story.--Arthur Lubow "New York Times" [Frank] pioneered a whole new subject matter that we [now] define as icons: cars, jukeboxes, even the road itself.--Scott Indrisek "Artsy" His work is revolutionary in showing an America that was not seen, but also creating a way of seeing in photography that was new, powerful and charged.--Ken Light "San Francisco Chronicle" I can't think of a single living artist who has as secure a status in his or her chosen field, and I doubt there will be one for some time.--Jim Lewis "LitHub" That is the miracle of great socially committed art: It addresses our sources of deepest unease, helps us to confront what we cannot organize or explain by making all of it unforgettable.--Nicholas Dawidoff "The New York Times Magazine" The exhibition is as comprehensive as it is ephemeral featuring a wealth of photographs, all of Frank's books since 1947, and his films that he began focusing on in the early 1960s.--Lisa Contag "Artinfo" The Americans challenged the presiding midcentury formula for photojournalism. Mr. Frank's photographs -- of lone individuals, teenage couples, groups at funerals and odd spoors of cultural life -- were cinematic, immediate, off-kilter and grainy, like early television transmissions of the period.--Philip Gefter "New York Times" ...Robert Frank changed history with the 83 images that appeared in his stark breakthrough "The Americans.--Sam Whiting "SFGate"