Robert Frank facts for kids

Robert Frank (born November 9, 1924 – died September 9, 2019) was a famous Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker. He later became a citizen of both Switzerland and America.

His most well-known work is a 1958 photo book called The Americans. This book showed a unique view of American society. Many people said it changed photography forever. A critic named Sean O'Hagan said in 2014 that The Americans "changed the nature of photography, what it could say and how it could say it." He also called it "perhaps the most influential photography book of the 20th century." Later in his career, Frank also made films and experimented with changing his photos.

Robert Frank's Early Life and Photography

Robert Frank was born in Zürich, Switzerland. His family was Jewish. During World War II, his family was safe in Switzerland. But the danger of Nazism helped him understand what it felt like to be treated unfairly.

He started photography to escape his family's business world. He learned from other photographers and graphic designers. In 1946, he made his first photo book, 40 Fotos.

In 1947, Frank moved to the United States. He got a job in New York City as a fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar magazine.

In 1949, a magazine called Camera showed many of his photos. They presented him as a new talent in Swiss photography. Another photographer, Jakob Tuggener, was a big inspiration for Frank. Tuggener's photo book Fabrik was a model for Frank's famous book, The Americans.

Frank soon left to travel in South America and Europe. He made another photo book from pictures he took in Peru. He returned to the U.S. in 1950. That year, he met famous photographer Edward Steichen. Frank also showed his work in a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). He married artist Mary Frank and they had two children, Andrea and Pablo.

At first, Frank was hopeful about American society. But he soon saw the fast pace of life and how much people focused on money. He started to see America as a lonely place. This view showed up in his later photos. He also didn't like how much control editors had over his work.

He kept traveling, even moving his family to Paris for a short time. In 1953, he came back to New York. He worked as a photojournalist for magazines like McCall's, Vogue, and Fortune. He worked with other photographers like Saul Leiter and Diane Arbus. They were part of a group called The New York School of photographers.

In 1955, Frank gained more recognition. Seven of his photos were chosen for a big exhibition called The Family of Man at the Museum of Modern Art. This show traveled the world and was seen by millions.

The Americans: A Famous Photo Book

Frank was inspired by other photographers' books. In 1955, he received a special grant called a Guggenheim Fellowship. This allowed him to travel across the United States and photograph all kinds of people and places.

He visited many cities, including Detroit, Savannah, Georgia, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. He took his family with him for some of these road trips. Over two years, he took 28,000 photos! He chose 83 of these for his book, The Americans.

His journey was not always easy. He faced challenges, including unfair treatment because he was Jewish in some small towns. These difficult experiences may have made his view of America seem darker in his photos.

In 1957, Frank met Beat writer Jack Kerouac. He showed Kerouac his travel photos. Kerouac was very impressed and wrote the introduction for the U.S. edition of The Americans. Frank also became good friends with Allen Ginsberg. Frank's photos captured the feeling of the Beat subculture. He showed the differences between the hopeful 1950s and the real issues of class and race.

Frank's photos were different from what most photojournalists were doing. He used unusual focus, low lighting, and unique cropping. This made it hard for him to find an American publisher at first.

Les Américains was first published in Paris in 1958. It finally came out in the United States in 1959. At first, it received a lot of criticism. One magazine called his images "meaningless blur" and "general sloppiness." Sales were slow, but Kerouac's introduction helped it reach more people.

Over time, The Americans became a very important work in American photography and art history. It is the work Robert Frank is most known for. Sean O'Hagan said in 2014 that it "changed the nature of photography, what it could say and how it could say it."

In 1961, Frank had his first solo art show in Chicago. He also had a show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1962.

To celebrate 50 years since The Americans was first published, a new edition came out in 2008. In 2009, a special exhibit called Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans was shown in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and New York.

Robert Frank's Films

After The Americans was published in the U.S. in 1959, Frank started focusing on filmmaking. One of his films was the 1959 movie Pull My Daisy. Jack Kerouac wrote and narrated it. Allen Ginsberg and other Beat artists starred in it. People praised the film for feeling spontaneous, like it was made up on the spot. However, Frank's co-director later said the film was actually carefully planned and rehearsed.

In 1972, Frank made a documentary about the famous rock band Rolling Stones. This is probably his most famous film. It showed the Stones while they were on tour. Frank said he wanted to photograph the "boredom" of being famous. The Rolling Stones later sued to stop the film from being shown widely. A court order limited how often it could be seen. Frank's photography also appeared on the cover of the Rolling Stones' album Exile on Main St..

Other films by Frank include Me and My Brother, Keep Busy, and Candy Mountain.

Later Life and Passing

Even though he was interested in film, Frank returned to still photography in the 1970s. He published his second photo book, The Lines of My Hand, in 1972. This book was like a "visual autobiography" with many personal photos. He started to create photos by combining images and making collages. He would scratch and change the negatives directly.

Frank and his first wife, Mary, separated in 1969. He later married sculptor June Leaf. In 1971, he moved to Mabou, Nova Scotia in Canada. In 1974, his daughter, Andrea, died in a plane crash. Around the same time, his son, Pablo, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Much of Frank's later work showed the impact of losing his daughter and, later, his son, who passed away in 1994. In 1995, he started the Andrea Frank Foundation to give grants to artists, in memory of his daughter.

After moving to Nova Scotia, Frank split his time between his home there and his loft in New York. He became known for being private and didn't give many interviews. However, he still took on interesting projects. He photographed the 1984 Democratic National Convention. He also directed music videos for artists like New Order and Patti Smith.

Frank continued to make films and photos. He helped organize several shows of his art. His work has been shown by Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York since 1984. In 1994, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. held a big show of his work called Moving Out.

Robert Frank passed away on September 9, 2019, at his home in Nova Scotia.

Films About Robert Frank

• Don't Blink – Robert Frank (2015). This is a documentary film about Robert Frank, directed by Laura Israel.

Robert Frank's Filmography

Exhibitions of Robert Frank's Work

Solo Exhibitions (Selected)

• 1961: Robert Frank: The Americans, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• 1976: Robert Frank, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich
• 1979: Robert Frank: Photographer/Filmmaker, Works 1945–1979, Long Beach Museum of Art.
• 1985: Robert Frank: New York to Nova Scotia, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
• 1989: The Americans, Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles
• 1997: Flamingo, Hasselblad Award exhibition, Hasselblad Center, Goteborg, Sweden
• 2003: Robert Frank: London/Wales, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
• 2004: Storylines, Tate Modern Museum, London
• 2005: Storylines, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur
• 2008: Robert Frank. Paris, Museum Folkwang, Essen
• 2009: Looking In: The Americans, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
• 2009: Robert Frank. Die Filme, C/O Berlin, Berlin
• 2010: The Unseen Eye: Photography from the collection of W.M. Hunt (group exhibition), Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala
• 2012: Robert Frank. From the collection of Fotomuseum Winterthur, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
• 2014: Robert Frank In America, Cantor Art Center at Stanford University, Stanford
• 2014: Robert Frank. Books and Films. 1947–2014, Akademie der Bildenden Künste München; afterwards 2015 Museum Folkwang, Essen
• 2016: Robert Frank: Books and Films, 1947–2016, HALLE 14 – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig
• 2016: Robert Frank: Books and Films. 1947–2016, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg
• 2016: Robert Frank: Books and Films. 1947–2016, Kunsthalle Ziegelhütte, Appenzell
• 2017: Robert Frank: Photos, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Group Exhibitions (Selected)

• 1955: The Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 24 – May 8 (Frank had 5 works in this show)
• 1962: Photographs by Harry Callahan and Robert Frank, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 30 – April 1
• 2004: Cruel and Tender. Fotografie und das Wirkliche, Museum Ludwig, Köln
• 2004: Cold Play. Set 1 aus der Sammlung des Fotomuseums Winterthur, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur
• 2005: I Wanna Be Loved By You, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn
• 2006: American Beauty, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• 2006: Some tribes, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich
• 2008: Street Art, Street Life: From the 1950s to Now, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York
• 2010: Staff Picks 2010, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
• 2010: Humanos. Acciones, Historia Y Fotografía, Centro de Arte Alcobendas (CAA), Madrid

Awards and Honors

• 1955: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
• 1996: Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography from the Hasselblad Foundation.
• 2002: Edward MacDowell Medal, MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH.
• 2015: Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa (an honorary degree), Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax, Canada.

See also

In Spanish: Robert Frank para niños