In the mid 1950’s, Robert Frank won the commission of a lifetime. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded him a grant to travel the US and capture American society in all it’s manifestations.
He spent two years traveling across the States and took around 28,000 photos. The resultant book contained 83 photos that depicted a complex representation of post-war America. Celebrated beat writer and author of cult classic ‘On the Road’ Jack Kerouac wrote the introduction to the book after meeting Robert Frank at a party.
When I first discovered Robert Frank through this book I was blown away. The book is full of fascinating, powerful imagery that is simply captivating. The photographs in this book were wildly different from any other photography published at the time. This was a new way of seeing! The photos haven’t lost any of their potency over time either, today they still pack a punch.
Robert Frank’s fresh and original approach to composition is something that has heavily influenced my photography, which is why I had to have it as my first Photo Book of the Month.