Binding: Hardcover Label: Grossman Publishers, an Aperture Book Manufacturer: Grossman Publishers, an Aperture Book Publication Date: 1969 Publisher: Grossman Publishers, an Aperture Book Studio: Grossman Publishers, an Aperture Book Sales Rank: 6438859
Product Description: Previously published in 1959, Frank's most famous and influential photography book contained a series of deceptively simple photos that he took on a trip through America in 1955 and 1956. These pictures of everyday people still speak to us today, 40 years and several generations later.
Amazon.com Review: 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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Robert Frank, not Jack Kerouac
contrary to what is listed, The Americans is by Robert Frank, the photographer. the photos are timeless and i still use them to teach photography to college students
jack kerouac only wrote the forward. ... Read More
Rating: - iNTERESTING
Excellent print quality.. A glance at common people in random daily-life shots. It's a book worth a place in your hands
Rating: - It's not by Jack K.
This book was not by Jack Kerouac. It's by Robert Frank. It's one of the seminal books in the history of photography. Many see it as a hate letter to America, but that's a shallow reading of the book. It's some ... Read More
Rating: - The definitive "The Americans"
We're lucky to have this edition. Robert Frank is an old man with health issues now. That he is healthy enough to oversee this work is wonderful. Everything about this edition - especially in comparison to the 2007 ... Read More
Rating: - Black and White and Grey
Looking at this again after many years ( I first came across it about 25 years ago) the images are as poignant as ever. This is truly a great book of photographs and is perhaps the best photojournalist's collection ... Read More
- iNTERESTING