I have a well-worn and much-loved copy of Robert Frank’s book “The Americans.” The dust jacket is torn and a bit yellow. The pages of the book--which I’ve probably owned for more than 30 years--are showing the patina of age as well.If you are a photographer, it’s likely you too have a copy of the book. I paid $8.50 for the book I own, but I see this morning on Amazon that if you want to buy a new copy today, you’ll pay $200 or more.
Personally, I don’t buy photography books to keep them as collector’s items, and I mention the monetary value of “The Americans” only as an interesting aside. I buy photo books as textbooks, as workbooks, because I’m curious about how other photographers see. When Robert Frank made his “Americans” photographs in the 1950’s, his imagery was considered radical. I have no doubt that Frank inspired a whole generation of young photographers to see in new ways.
There’s a lot of buzz lately about the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” I wonder how many photographers remember that Kerouac wrote the unforgettable (for me, at least) introduction to “The Americans”?
Kerouac’s introduction begins:
"THAT CRAZY FEELING IN AMERICA when the sun is hot on the streets and the music comes out of the jukebox or from a nearby funeral, that’s what Robert Frank has captured in these tremendous photographs taken as he traveled on the road around practically forty-eight states in an old used car (on a 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....”
The ending of Kerouac’s introduction is just as lyrical:
“Anybody doesn’t 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...”
