Robert Frank

Robert Frank was born in Z¨rich, Switzerland. He is an important figure in American photography and film. His most famous book, The Americans, came out in 1958. It was influential in the post-war period. He was applauded for his fresh outsider's view of American society. In 1955, he received his grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, which allowed him to travel all across the United States and photograph people from all walks of life. He traveled for the next two years, his family accompanying him for parts of the road trip. In his later work, Frank expanded into film/video work and experimented with composite images and manipulated photographs.

"When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice" (Robert Frank).

"Quality doesn't mean deep blacks and whatever tonal range. That's not quality, that's a kind of quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike someone as being sloppy - the tone range isn't right and things like that - but they're far superior to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard. But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that has something to do with what he's doing, what his mind is. It's not balancing out the sky to the sand and so forth. It's got to do with intention" (Elliot Erwitt).

I researched Robert Frank this week because the basis of his work is formed on travel photography. The whole basis of my own work has been about traveling and going different places. I enjoy passing through new environments. Photography is my own way of meditating and feeling out my surroundings. I learn more about a place through photographing and observing everything around me. I really like the first quote by Robert Frank. I also want to make work that makes people stop and stare and think about what I am showing them. I want my viewer to look at my photographs and understand how I feel when I am in that place. I really appreciate Robert Frank's aesthetic. I like the fact that a lot of his images had to be taken on the move, almost like snapshots but with more meaning. I love the whole idea of traveling and documenting everything you experience.