ROBERT FRANK.

Robert Frank is a photographer and film-maker. He is is known for his unconventional tactics and was unappreciated at first however people did then start to like him. He lived in Switzerland originally but was affected by Nazism in WWII and as a result of that it affected his view of the government and turned to photography. He started as a commercial photographer but then moved to NYC to become a fashion photographer. He made films such as "Pull My Daisy" and did a documentary about the Rolling Stones. His key book is "The Americans" where he took photos to help people feel and smell the place. He took 28,000 photos over 2 years and only chose 83 of them for the book.

It can be said that Robert Frank “kicked open the cultural door” when it came to his work and he has influenced  almost any photographer, documentarian and photojournalist born and working in the 1950’s. Throughout his career he chose to mentor various people and from that has influenced upon their work. Jerry de Wilde; was showing his work to Frank was offered guidance from him, he said “these a pretty pictures but what are they about” telling de Wilde to “go out and shoot people” which is exactly what he went on to do. He created a lot of work in the 1960’s taking various celebrity photos and black and white shots and has since then passed on the knowledge to his daughter. There was also Allen Ginsberg - whose work is extremely similar to Franks, he spent his lifetime taking B&W photographs of his friends - including a portrait of Robert Frank. His technique was to point his camera randomly at the counterculture around him to create this unique visual record of his friends which he then placed into his book “photographs" - which was actually designed by Frank and included a lot of insight into the “Beat” movement - that Frank was heavily involved in.

Franks work can be directly linked to his close friend Diane Arbus - they both held high interests in the street photography of strangers. Where Frank liked to capture people off guard, usually unknown that they are being photographed, Arbus’ shots were positioned - with the subject being in an unusual environment so that all their insecurities are lade bare with nothing hidden.  Through his “The Americans” photos Frank wanted to portray the optimism of the 1900’s, the realities of class and also the raciall differences whilst including the portrayal of the bleakness and loneliness of America. Likewise, Arbus wanted to keep the realistic nature in her photos, but mix it up with expressive possibilities and position her subjects in a way that creates tension. However, Frank uses unusual focus, low lighting against the gloss of the culture and wealth to cover up the tension in his photos, unlike arbus who exposes the tension and emotions in her photos. For example looking at Arbus’ photo “young couple on a bench in Washington Square Park, NYC, 1965” there is a striking resemblance to Franks image from “The Americans” of a young couple also sitting on a bench. Both images do heighten a feeling of tension but as Arbus’ subject is looking directly at the camera it is more obvious.

Another person influenced by Frank is Saul Leiter - he also does black and white street photography but focusses it in the area of New York. He was actually friends with both Arbus and Frank - being influenced by Frank’s use of out of focussed images and he also emphasises the fact that his subjects are unaware that they are being photographed. Like Frank, he took photos for pleasure and only released black and white photos. However, some of his best work is actually in colour but he hid these images - presumably to be more like those of Arbus and Frank.

Overall, his work challenged traditional styles and was shot directly through his eyes and not other peoples.