The Americans
Product Description
In 1958, the first edition of Robert Frank’s The Americans was published in Paris. Les Américains contained Frank’s 83 photographs in the same sequence as all subsequent editions, with the image on the right hand page, but juxtaposed with historical texts about American society and politics, gathered by Alain Bosquet. The following year, in the first American edition, the French texts were removed and an introduction by Jack Kerouac was added. Over the subsequent 50 years, The Americans has been republished in many editions, in numerous languages, with a variety of cover designs, and even in a range of sizes. It is the most famous photography book ever published, and it changed the face of the medium forever.
Robert Frank discussed with his publisher, Gerhard Steidl, the idea of producing a new edition using modern scanning and the finest tritone printing. The starting point was to bring original prints from New York to Göttingen, Germany, where Steid… More >>
I’m not as impressed with this book as most critics are. Frank traveled around the U.S. and photographed pretty much what he was looking for: visual proof that Americans and their culture are crass, materialist, full of prejudice, and vulgar.
This view has been a commonplace conceit of European artists and intellectuals, and it began even before the colonies had united to become the United States. It was a message that was sure to win him applause from Europeans and also from that portion of the American intelligentsia who take European judgements as final.
I think Frank’s photos are highly overrated and took little insight or understanding to create. They reflect mostly a typical European viewpoint and show almost no understanding of what this country and its people are really about.
I don’t know why this book is printed in Switzerland, but hey!, still a GREAT book. I bought it because Bruce Springsteen was inspired by Robert Frank in order to get his design for Nebraska. There are a couple of pictures or three that are very close to the Springsteen imaginery.
I purchased this much heralded photo collection book after reading the review in Newsweek. Maybe I’m not artsy-sophisticated enough to understand the supposed power and humanness or whatever behind these photos. I just don’t get them. For a much better look at people in general, look at the book The Life of Man, or even a book of Norman Rockwell paintings. Those books will give you a better idea of life from the 1920′s to the 1970′s, and the people. The only photo that did stand out to me was the cover photo of the bus. It’s painful.
Captured moments of Amercian Life, often shown here with an American flag in the photo. These images in this book portray a visual artist who is creating photos by shifting angles, waiting for the right moment, using light in a different way. Its tough to describe this book other than to say that it was edited pretty well.
There are three types of photographers.
The first are with goals of one day selling out to a magazine or whomever has a wallet.
The second are the hobbyists who prance around the city with their Leicas.
The third is Robert Frank. Thank you for sharing your pictures.