new news 2012: Robert Frank

Showing posts with label Robert Frank. Show all posts

Photographer Robert Frank's Rolling Stones Video - Rocks Off (1972)

Robert Frank shot the footage used in this video and the stills for "Exile on Main Street" Cover. If you find the original Vinyl snag it!

Police Report From Robert Frank's Detainment in 1955.

Robert Frank in NYC ~ 1955

Apparently having cameras, speaking with an accent and needing a shave is grounds for detainment.

Robert Frank was “smart-elecky” according to the Arkansas officer. Way to go Robert!
Here is the police report:

Department of
ARKANSAS STATE POLICE
Little Rock, Arkansas

December 19, 1955

Alan R. Templeton, Captain
Criminal Investigations Division
Arkansas State Police
Little Rock, Arkansas

Dear Captain Templeton:

On or about November 7, I was enroute to Dermott to attend to some business and about 2 o’clock I observed a 1950 or 1951 Ford with New York license, driven by a subject later identified as Robert Frank of New York City.

After stopping the car I noticed that he was shabbily dressed, needed a shave and a haircut, also a bath. Subject talked with a foreign accent. I talked to the subject a few minutes and looked into the car where I noticed it was heavily loaded with suitcases, trunks and a number of cameras.

Due to the fact that it was necessary for me to report to Dermott immediately, I placed the subject in the City Jail in McGehee until such time that I could return and check him out.

After returning from Dermott I questioned this subject. He was very uncooperative and had a tendency to be “smart-elecky” in answering questions. Present during the questioning was Trooper Buren Jackson and Officer Ernest Crook of the McGehee Police Department.

We were advised that a Mr. Mercer Woolf of McGehee, who had some experience in counter-intelligence work during World War II and could read and speak several foreign languages, would be available to assist us in checking out this subject. Subject had numerous papers in foreign langauges, including a passport that did not include his picture.

This officer investigated this subject due to the man’s appearance, the fact that he was a foreigner and had in his possession cameras and felt that the subject should be checked out as we are continually being advised to watch out for any persons illegally in this country possibly in the emply of some unfriendly foreign power and the possibility of Communist affiliations.

Subject was fingerprinted in the normal routine of police investigation; one card being sent to Arkansas State Police Headquarters and one card to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington.

Respectfully submitted,
Lieutenant R.E. Brown, Lieutenant
Comanding (spelling error)
Troop #5
ARKANSAS STATE POLICE
Warren, Arkansas

REB:dlg

Photographer Profile ~ Robert Frank

Catching his subjects off-guard with a camera peeking from his jacket, the photographer Robert Frank 'captured a sad poem right out of America on to film' ~ his friend Jack Kerouac.

Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of photography, Robert Frank has redefined the aesthetic of both the still and film, Soon after immigrating from Zurich to New York in 1947, he was hired by Harper's Bazaar as a fashion photographer. He soon left to travel in South America and Europe. He created a hand-made book of photographs that he shot in Peru and returned to the U.S. in 1950. That year was momentous for Frank, who, after meeting Edward Steichen, participated in the group show '51 American Photographers' at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA);

With the aid of his major artistic influence, the photographer Walker Evans, Frank received his first Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955, then embarked on a two-year journey across America during which he took over 28,000 images. Just 83 made it into the groundbreaking monograph The American's.

Robert Frank ~ London & Wales

See these links for more on Robert Frank
The American's
Rolling Stone's Video by Robert Frank!

Photographer's Contact Sheets.

A contact sheet is the visual diary of a photographer. See their hits their misses and view the world though their eyes. I find it fascinating to study the contact sheets of some of the greats. Most photographers do not like to show their contact sheets, myself included. With digital it is easy to hide your misses. With analogue it was a rare glimpse into to photographer's mind.

"there are two things one doesn't do in public; eat lobster and show your contacts" not sure who said it but photographer Bruce Gilden quoted it in a doc once.