THE AMERICANS [Signed by Robert Frank]

Frank, Robert [Photographer]; Kerouac, Jack [Introduction]

ISBN 10: 386521584X / ISBN 13: 9783865215840

Published by Steidl, Washington, D.C., 2008

About this Item

Oblong octavo, unpaginated. In Very Good minus condition with Very Good dust jacket and Very Good wrap-around band. Spine white with red band and black text. Dust jacket and wrap-around band are in a mylar protective cover. Dust jacket and band both show minor shelf wear on covers, edges, and fore corners. Very light vertical dent across dust jacket back. Boards show very light scuffing on covers. Faint vertical scrape across rear board, which causes minor bowing and corresponds to dent in dust jacket. Spine is slightly cocked. Text block shows light age toning around edges of pages. Signed flat in black marker by Robert Frank on title page. DL consignment. Shelved in Room C. This edition is the first 50th Anniversary Edition of Robert Frank's classic. 1399574. Special Collections.

Seller Inventory # 1399574

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE AMERICANS [Signed by Robert Frank]
• Publisher: Steidl, Washington, D.C.
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 386521584X
• ISBN 13: 9783865215840
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Steidl Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Visual Arts

About this title

Synopsis

Armed with a camera and a fresh cache of film and bankrolled by a Guggenheim Foundation grant, Robert Frank crisscrossed the United States during 1955 and 1956. The photographs he brought back form a portrait of the country at the time and hint at its future. He saw the hope of the future in the faces of a couple at city hall in Reno, Nevada, and the despair of the present in a grimy roofscape. He saw the roiling racial tension, glamour, and beauty, and, perhaps because Frank himself was on the road, he was particularly attuned to Americans' love for cars. Funeral-goers lean against a shiny sedan, lovers kiss on a beach blanket in front of their parked car, young boys perch in the back seat at a drive-in movie. A sports car under a drop cloth is framed by two California palm trees; on the next page, a blanket is draped over a car accident victim's body in Arizona. Robert Frank's Americans reappear 40 years after they were initially published in this exquisite volume by Scalo. Each photograph (there are more than 80 of them) stands alone on a page, while the caption information is included at the back of the book, allowing viewers an unfettered look at the images. Jack Kerouac's original introduction, commissioned when the photographer showed the writer his work while sitting on a sidewalk one night outside of a party, provides the only accompanying text. Kerouac's words add narrative dimension to Frank's imagery while in turn the photographs themselves perfectly illustrate the writer's own work.