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PUBLISHER
Steidl

BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 8.25 x 7.25 in. / 180 pgs / 83 tritone.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2008 p. 180   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9783865215840 TRADE
List Price: $40.00 CDN $54.00

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

TERRITORY
NA ONLY

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Washington
National Gallery of Art, 01/18/08-04/26/09

San Francisco
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 05/17/09-08/23/09

New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 09/20/09-12/27/09

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STEIDL

Robert Frank: The Americans

Introduction by Jack Kerouac.

Robert Frank: The Americans

First published in France in 1958, then in the United States in 1959, Robert Frank's The Americans changed the course of 20th-century photography

First published in France in 1958, then in the United States in 1959, Robert Frank's The Americans changed the course of twentieth-century photography. In 83 photographs, Frank looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a people plagued by racism, ill-served by their politicians and rendered numb by a rapidly expanding culture of consumption. Yet he also found novel areas of beauty in simple, overlooked corners of American life. And it was not just Frank's subject matter--cars, jukeboxes and even the road itself—that redefined the icons of America; it was also his seemingly intuitive, immediate, off-kilter style, as well as his method of brilliantly linking his photographs together thematically, conceptually, formally and linguistically, that made The Americans so innovative. More of an ode or a poem than a literal document, the book is as powerful and provocative today as it was 56 years ago.

"Drugstore, Detroit" (1955) is reproduced from Robert Frank: The Americans.

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Artinfo

Lisa Contag

The exhibition is as comprehensive as it is ephemeral featuring a wealth of photographs, all of Frank’s books since 1947, and his films that he began focusing on in the early 1960s.

The New York Times Magazine

Nicholas Dawidoff

That is the miracle of great socially committed art: It addresses our sources of deepest unease, helps us to confront what we cannot organize or explain by making all of it unforgettable.

SFGate

Sam Whiting

...Robert Frank changed history with the 83 images that appeared in his stark breakthrough “The Americans.

San Francisco Chronicle

Ken Light

His work is revolutionary in showing an America that was not seen, but also creating a way of seeing in photography that was new, powerful and charged.

L'Oeil de la Photographie

The photographs from his seminal book The Americans, which took a critical look at our nation’s life in the 1950s, are timeless. His work continues to inspire new generations to follow his path to see what is invisible in America.

Artsy

Scott Indrisek

[Frank] pioneered a whole new subject matter that we [now] define as icons: cars, jukeboxes, even the road itself.

New York Times

Philip Gefter

The Americans challenged the presiding midcentury formula for photojournalism. Mr. Frank’s photographs — of lone individuals, teenage couples, groups at funerals and odd spoors of cultural life — were cinematic, immediate, off-kilter and grainy, like early television transmissions of the period.

LitHub

Jim Lewis

I can’t think of a single living artist who has as secure a status in his or her chosen field, and I doubt there will be one for some time.

New York Times

Arthur Lubow

Each portrait tells its own story.

Robert Frank: The Americans

STATUS: Out of stock

Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 11/9/2021

Remembering Robert Frank, born OTD in Zurich, 1924

Remembering Robert Frank, born OTD in Zurich, 1924

"What a poem this is, what poems can be written about a book of pictures some day by some young new writer high by candlelight bending over them describing every gray mysterious detail, the gray film that caught the actual pink juice of human kind. Whether 't is the milk of human kindness, Shakespeare meant, makes no difference when you look at these pictures. Better than a show." On the occasion of the late photographer's birthday, we are pleased to reproduce "Movie Premiere, Hollywood" (1956) from Frank's seminal first photography book, The Americans, back in stock from Steidl. "The humor, the sadness, the EVERYTHING-ness and American-ness of these pictures!" Jack Kerouac wrote in his 1959 Introduction, also quoted above. continue to blog


FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 11/7/2014

Robert Frank: The Americans

Robert Frank: The Americans

In his 1959 introduction to Robert Frank's now-seminal photobook, The Americans, Jack Kerouac wrote, "Anybody doesnt like these pitchers dont like potry, see? Anybody dont like potry go home see Television shots of big hatted cowboys being tolerated by kind horses.
Robert Frank, Swiss, unobtrusive, nice, with that little camera that he raises and snaps with one hand he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world.
To Robert Frank I now give this message: You got eyes.
And I say: That little ole lonely elevator girl looking up and sighing in an elevator full of blurred demons, what's her name & address?" On November 9, Frank celebrates his ninetieth birthday. Happy birthday, Robert Frank.

"Elevator - Miami Beach" is reproduced from The Americans, seventh edition, published by Steidl. continue to blog


FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/14/2018

But wow! The Americans!

But wow! The Americans!

When Robert Frank's photobook masterpiece The Americans came out in 1958, photography changed forever. "Seeing The Americans in a college bookshop was a stunning, ground-trembling experience for me," Ed Ruscha has written, for example. "But I realized this man's achievement could not be mined or imitated in any way, because he had already done it, sewn it up and gone home. What I was left with was the vapors of his talent. I had to make my own kind of art. But wow! The Americans!" Featured image is "Coffee shop, railway station—Indianapolis." continue to blog


FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/3/2019

'Robert Frank: The Americans' is Back in Stock!

'Robert Frank: The Americans' is Back in Stock!

Photo lovers, students, librarians, teachers and bookstores across the land, rejoice! The Americans—Robert Frank's masterpiece and perhaps the most influential photography book of the twentieth century—is back in stock at last! Robert Frank is "the photographic equivalent of Rimbaud," Tod Papageorge writes, "an anarchic poet who sings one brutal song, and then, in despair and exaltation, or whatever joy is found in conjunction with the creation of something incomparable, denies his gift by rejecting it." Featured image is "Public park — Ann Arbor, Michigan." continue to blog


FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/4/2020

On Independence Day 2020, we remember Robert Frank, "tragic poet" and author of the seminal photography book "The Americans"

On Independence Day 2020, we remember Robert Frank, "tragic poet" and author of the seminal photography book "The Americans"

“That crazy feeling in America when the sun is hot on the streets and music comes out of the jukebox or from a nearby funeral, that’s what Robert Frank has captured in tremendous photographs taken as he traveled on the road around practically forty-eight states in an old used car (on Guggenheim Fellowship) and with the agility, mystery, genius, sadness and strange secrecy of a shadow photographed scenes that have never been seen before on film. For this he will definitely be hailed as a great artist in his field… Robert Frank, Swiss, unobtrusive, nice, with that little camera that he raises and snaps with one hand he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world. To Robert Frank I now give this message: You got eyes.” —Jack Kerouac, The Americans. continue to blog


FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/22/2016

HISTORIC: Robert Frank & Gerhard Steidl in Conversation

HISTORIC: Robert Frank & Gerhard Steidl in Conversation

SOLD OUT. Thursday, January 28, 2016, from 6-8PM, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts presents legendary photographer Robert Frank in conversation with master printer and publisher Gerhard Steidl. This historic conversation initiates the exhibition Robert Frank: Books and Films, 1947-2016.
continue to blog


ROBERT FRANK MONOGRAPHS + ARTIST'S BOOKS

Robert Frank: Trolley—New Orleans

ROBERT FRANK: TROLLEY—NEW ORLEANS

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

ISBN: 9781633451193
USD $14.95
| CAN $20.95

Pub Date: 3/9/2021
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Books and Films, 1947–2019

ROBERT FRANK: BOOKS AND FILMS, 1947–2019

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958293069
USD $30.00
| CAN $42

Pub Date: 11/10/2020
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Good days quiet

ROBERT FRANK: GOOD DAYS QUIET

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958295506
USD $40.00
| CAN $56

Pub Date: 4/23/2019
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: London/Wales

ROBERT FRANK: LONDON/WALES

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958290396
USD $45.00
| CAN $60

Pub Date: 6/18/2019
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: The Lines of My Hand

ROBERT FRANK: THE LINES OF MY HAND

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958293205
USD $35.00
| CAN $47.5

Pub Date: 2/27/2018
Active | Out of stock


Robert Frank: Leon of Juda

ROBERT FRANK: LEON OF JUDA

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958293113
USD $30.00
| CAN $40

Pub Date: 11/21/2017
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Hold Still, Keep Going

ROBERT FRANK: HOLD STILL, KEEP GOING

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869309040
USD $40.00
| CAN $54

Pub Date: 11/22/2016
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: What We Have Seen

ROBERT FRANK: WHAT WE HAVE SEEN

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958290952
USD $30.00
| CAN $40

Pub Date: 3/22/2016
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Film Works

ROBERT FRANK: FILM WORKS

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958290365
USD $175.00
| CAN $235

Pub Date: 10/25/2016
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Partida

ROBERT FRANK: PARTIDA

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869307954
USD $30.00
| CAN $40

Pub Date: 9/30/2014
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Away

ROBERT FRANK: AWAY

Steidl/The Robert Frank project

ISBN: 9783865218117
USD $35.00
| CAN $40

Pub Date: 4/1/2009
Forthcoming


Robert Frank: Household Inventory Record

ROBERT FRANK: HOUSEHOLD INVENTORY RECORD

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869306605
USD $35.00
| CAN $47.5

Pub Date: 12/15/2013
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Pangnirtung

ROBERT FRANK: PANGNIRTUNG

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869301983
USD $40.00
| CAN $54

Pub Date: 2/1/2011
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Park / Sleep

ROBERT FRANK: PARK / SLEEP

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869305851
USD $30.00
| CAN $40

Pub Date: 1/30/2013
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Tal uf Tal ab

ROBERT FRANK: TAL UF TAL AB

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869301013
USD $30.00
| CAN $40

Pub Date: 8/1/2010
Active | In stock


Robert Frank: Valencia

ROBERT FRANK: VALENCIA

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869305028
USD $50.00
| CAN $67.5

Pub Date: 10/31/2012
Active | In stock