First published in the United States in 1959, Robert Frank’s “Americans” may be the most influential book of art over the last six decades. A collection of 83 black and white photographs, “The Americans” to set standards that still challenge artists.
In “An American Journey”, photographer and French director Philippe Seclier is proposed not to document the book itself, but the conditions and personalities that led to its creation. Those already familiar with “The Americans” may have some insights into the creative process of Frank. Others will be in front of an oblique, often exasperating road trip, which seems never ending. That weakness will limit the appeal of the film beyond aficionados Frank. Lorber Films released the document Wednesday (Sept. 30).
Seclier approaches do not book by Frank as a document to explain, but as a kind of map to explore and emulate. He then crossed the photographer travels the country in 1955 and 1956, staying in the city itself, capturing the same views on his video camera and from time to time to debate the subject of the photo.
Seclier also interviews some acquaintances of Frank, three of its editors and a number of art critics and historians. Despite often murky camerawork of director, the dominant themes in the book by Frank – race and class divisions, music and landscapes that isolate the individual – is apparent.
Some fascinating facts of the book emerge. In explaining to the attention of Frank marginalized, the poor and segregation, many observers point to his background as a German Jew forced to flee to Switzerland during the Second World War. Frank used about 600 rolls of film, enough for thousands of exposures, to get to the photos which ran in the book.
San Francisco-area photographer Wayne Morris, still amazed at the memory, describes how Frank skipped auditions to make contact, instead of using scissors to cut individual frames he wanted from negative strips. Publisher Barney Rosset compare Frank revolutionary painters such as Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline.
Sarah Greenough, a curator at the National Gallery of Art, cites an “extraordinary” number of spectacular photographs that Frank has decided not to include in his book. “He could have made an even more negative view of America,” she says. “The Americans” received some vicious reviews when it was published, but over the years his influence in popular culture has become unshakable. Each listing gritty blue-Jean and grunge-rock music video has a debt to Frank, as a whole school of irony-laced fashion photography can be traced back to this book.
Which may not be clear from Seclier film, which relies on the bland aphorisms rather than explaining career of Frank? Viewers do not find that for years Frank abandoned photography to cinema, for example.
In fact, he is the 800-lbs gorilla in “a trip to America,” an imposing figure who refuses to explain his achievements. Despite the efforts Seclier, the work of Frank maintains both its mystery and its majesty.
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