Artist Talk: Robert Frank on "The Americans"

"Less taste, more spirit.
Less art, more truth."

On March 26, 2009, I had the privelage of taking the Metro into DC with a couple of my buddies to hear Robert Frank speak about his photobook "The Americans" for the first time in 50 years. The talk proved to be nothing that was expected, as Frank did not let the leading questions trick him into self glorification. He instead, stuck true to the facts and told Sarah Greenough, the senior curator and head of the department of photographs, exactly how he came across his images, which involved a lot of travel and little dwelling on his subject matter. Frank simply sought to produce images that people would remember, "like a line of a poem."

Frank arrived in New York City in 1947 an outsider. He moved from Switzerland where he was influenced by his father, who he used to watch take photos. When he came to America, Frank must have experienced some culture shock, and partially due to his great influence by Kerouac, Frank sought to be "freer." So, Frank traveled around the world taking many photographs of what he saw, portraying the truth, and "the people that you don't see." After years of Shooting, "The Americans" came to be. After 767 roles of film, 28,000 photographs and 1,000 work prints, Frank edited his work down to 83 photos and "The Americans" was born.

"The Americans" had a rocky road into becoming the monument that it is today. It was first scoffed at when it came out. It was first published in Europe and included text from European writers about America. Frank did not like this one bit. He says that pictures should live as pictures and not be expanded by a caption (afterall, doesn't everyone always say that a picture is worth a thousand words?). Eventually, in the 60's, "The Americans" became a pop culture phenomenon and was seen as a model for photo journalism. Frank continued to move forward from this book, however, not dwelling on the past or on the subject matter... just as he did in "The Americans." Frank stopped shooting photographs for five years and took up film. Eventually, Frank drilled a hole through his photographs included in "The Americans" in order to distance himself from it.

When asked how he invented these incredible images, images that are so famous today, Frank did not come up with a whimsical story about how incredible he is. He simply stated that it was an accident. He said that he takes few pictures of one thing so that he is "not beating the subject." He states that "often photography relies on an accident and if an accident happens three times, it is not an accident." Frank said that he was always moving because the eye is so interested. There is always something new to see.

On the topic of hip shooting, Frank does not talk much about being too scared in certain situations. It was more about not being known as a photographer. In places that it would be hard for him to blend in, it was probably much harder when there was a camera involved as well and so he chose not to be seen as a photographer because it would change the dynamic of the image. This reflects back to his idea of being an outsider and looking in. This also relates to Frank being jewish, which he talked briefly about on this day. This is something that he has never before mentioned. Being jewish placed Frank as more of an outsider looking in, because this placed him as a minority.

This was an incredible talk to hear, and I am very impressed with the way that Frank composed himself. I think that it is very bold and intentional that he did not let the curator's questions lead him into self glorification. He was very honest about his whole ordeal and seemed to enjoy not buying into the questions that were being asked. The talk proved to be inspirational because Frank refused to make himself out to be some sort of photography god with tons of dark history and super human photography powers. He was simply able to make images that were mere accidents into images that were memorable like a line of a poem.