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Exhibition: ‘Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg’ at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Exhibition dates: 2nd May – 6th September 2010

Many thankx to Anabeth Guthrie and the National Gallery of Art, Washington for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997) 'Jack Kerouac the last time he visited my apartment 704 East 5th Street, N.Y.C.… Fall 1964' 1964 from the exhibition 'Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg' at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., May - Sept, 2010

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
Jack Kerouac the last time he visited my apartment 704 East 5th Street, N.Y.C…. Fall 1964
1964
Gelatin silver print
Image: 29.5 x 20.8cm (11 5/8 x 8 3/16 in)
Sheet: 35.5 x 27.5cm (14 x 10 13/16 in)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
Francesco Clemente looking over hand-script album with new poem I’d written out for his Blake-inspired watercolor illuminations… Manhattan, October 1984…
1984
Gelatin silver print
Image: 40.4 x 27cm (15 7/8 x 10 5/8 in)
Sheet: 50.5 x 40.5cm (19 7/8 x 15 15/16 in)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
Jack Kerouac, railroad brakeman’s rule-book in pocket… 206 East 7th Street near Tompkins Park, Manhattan, probably September 1953
1953
Gelatin silver print; printed 1984-1997
Image: 34.8 x 23.5cm (13 11/16 x 9 1/4 in)
Sheet: 51.7 x 40.5cm (20 3/8 x 15 15/16 in)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Some of the most compelling photographs taken by renowned 20th-century American poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) of himself and his fellow Beat poets and writers – including William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, and Jack Kerouac – are the subject of the first scholarly exhibition and catalogue of these works. Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg explores all facets of his photographs through 79 black-and-white portraits, on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from May 2 through September 6, 2010.

The works are selected largely from a recent gift to the Gallery by Gary S. Davis as well as from private lenders. Davis acquired a master set of Ginsberg’s photographs from the poet’s estate, including one print of every photograph in Ginsberg’s possession at the time of his death. If more than one print existed, Ginsberg’s estate selected the one with the most compelling inscription. In 2008 and 2009 Davis donated more than 75 of these photographs to the National Gallery.

“We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Gary Davis for his dedication to Ginsberg’s work and for his donations to the National Gallery,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. “Joining other large and important holdings of photographs by such 20th-century artists as Harry Callahan, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, André Kertész, Irving Penn, Alfred Stieglitz, and Paul Strand, this Ginsberg collection will allow future generations to study the evolution of the visual art of this important poet in all its rich complexity and to assess his contributions to 20th-century American photography.”

The same ideas that informed Ginsberg’s poetry – an intense observation of the world, a deep appreciation for the beauty of the vernacular, a faith in intuitive expression – also permeate his photographs.

When Ginsberg first began to take photographs in the 1950s, he – like countless other amateurs – had his film developed and printed at a local drugstore. The exhibition begins with a small selection of these “drugstore” prints.

The exhibition showcases examples of his now celebrated portraits of Beat writers such as Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg himself, starting just before they achieved fame with their publication, respectively, of Naked Lunch (1959), On the Road (1957), and Howl (1956), and continuing through the 1960s. In the photograph Bob Donlon (Rob Donnelly, Kerouac’s ‘Desolation Angels’), Neal Cassady, myself in black corduroy jacket… (1956), Ginsberg captures the tender, playful quality of his close-knit group of friends.

Photographs such as The first shopping cart street prophet I’d directly noticed… (1953) and Ginsberg’s apartment at 1010 Montgomery Street, San Francisco (1953), reveal his self-taught talents and careful attention to the world around him.

The second section of the exhibition presents Ginsberg’s later photographs, taken from the early 1980s until his death. These images were immediately embraced by the art world in the 1980s, and works such as Publisher-hero Barney Rosset whose Grove Press legal battles liberated U.S. literature & film… (1991) and Lita Hornick in her dining room… (1995) were exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. Prestigious institutions acquired Ginsberg’s photographs for their permanent collections, and two books were published on his photographic accomplishments. Ginsberg was not simply a happy bystander, witnessing these events from afar; he was one of the most active promoters of his photography. With their handwritten captions by Ginsberg himself, often reflecting on the passage of time, his photographs are both records and recollections of an era.

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Allen Ginsberg began to take photographs in 1953 when he purchased a small, secondhand Kodak camera. From then until the early 1960s, he photographed himself and his friends in New York and San Francisco, or on his travels around the world. At the same time, he was formulating his poetic voice. Ginsberg first commanded public attention in 1955 when he read his provocative and now famous poem Howl to a wildly cheering audience at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. It was published the following year by City Lights Books with an introduction by William Carlos Williams.

Together with On the Road (1957), written by Kerouac, Howl was immediately hailed as a captivating, if challenging expression of both a new voice and a new vision for American literature. Celebrating personal freedom, sexual openness, and spontaneity, Ginsberg and Kerouac came to be seen as the embodiment of a younger generation – the Beats – who were unconcerned with middle-class American values and aspirations and decried its materialism and conformity. Ginsberg abandoned photography in 1963.

In 1983, with this rich, full life largely behind him, Ginsberg became increasingly interested in ensuring and perpetuating his legacy. Inspired by the discovery of his old negatives and encouraged by photographers Berenice Abbott and Robert Frank, he reprinted much of his early photographs and made new portraits of longtime friends and other acquaintances, such as the painter Francesco Clemente and musician Bob Dylan. With his poetic voice refined, Ginsberg, also added extensive inscriptions beneath each image, describing both his relationship with the subject and his memories of their times together.

Unlike many other members of the Beat Generation whose careers were cut short, Ginsberg wrote and published deeply moving and influential poetry for the rest of his life, including Kaddish (1961), his soulful lament for his mother, and The Fall of America: Poems of These States, 1965-1971 (1972), which was awarded a National Book Award in 1974. Using his fame to advance social causes, he also continued to capture public attention as an outspoken opponent to the Vietnam War and American militarism and as a champion of free speech, gay rights, and oppressed people around the world. In the midst of this popular acclaim, Ginsberg’s photographs have not received much critical attention, especially in the years since his death in 1997.

Although Ginsberg’s photographs form one of the most revealing records of the Beat and counterculture generation from the 1950s to the 1990s, tracing their journey from youthful characters to ageing, often spent figures, his pictures are far more than historical documents. Drawing on the most common form of photography – the snapshot – he created spontaneous, uninhibited pictures of ordinary events to celebrate and preserve what he called “the sacredness of the moment.

Press release from the National Gallery of Art website [Online] Cited 01/09/2010 no longer available online

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
William Burroughs, 11 pm late March 1985, being driven home to 222 Bowery…
1985
Gelatin silver print
Image: 19.7 x 18.9cm (7 3/4 x 7 7/16 in)
Sheet: 25.4 x 20.3cm (10 x 8 in)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
Myself seen by William Burroughs… our apartment roof Lower East Side between Avenues B & C… Fall 1953
1953; printed 1984-1997
Gelatin silver print
Image: 28.58 x 43.82cm (11 1/4 x 17 1/4 in)
Sheet: 40.5 x 50.5cm (15 15/16 x 19 7/8 in)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
“Now Jack as I warned you” … William Burroughs… lecturing… Jack Kerouac… Manhattan, 206 East 7th St. Apt. 16, Fall 1953
1953; printed 1984-1997
Gelatin silver print
Image: 28.3 x 44.2cm (11 1/8 x 17 3/8 in)
Sheet: 40.4 x 50.2cm (15 7/8 x 19 3/4 in)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
William S. Burroughs looking serious, sad lover’s eyes, afternoon light in window… New York, Fall 1953
1953; printed 1984-1997
Gelatin silver print
Image: 19.2 x 29cm (7 9/16 x 11 7/16 in)
Sheet: 27.9 x 35.2cm (11 x 13 7/8 in)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
Neal Cassady and his love of that year the star-crossed Natalie Jackson… San Francisco, maybe March 1955
1955; printed 1984-1997
Gelatin silver print
Image: 24.9 x 38cm (9 13/16 x 14 15/16 in)
Sheet: 40.5 x 50.5cm (15 15/16 x 19 7/8 in)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
William Burroughs
1953
gelatin silver print
Image: 10.2 x 15.2cm (4 x 6 in)
Sheet: 11.3 x 16.1cm (4 7/16 x 6 5/16 in)
Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
Jack Kerouac wandering along East 7th street…
1953
Gelatin silver print, printed 1984-1997
Image: 11 1/2 x 17 3/4 in.
National Gallery of Art
Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
Allen Ginsberg
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image: 2 11/16 x 3 15/16 in.
Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
Peter Orlovsky at James Joyce’s grave
1980; printed 1984-1997
gelatin silver print
Image: 19 x 28.5cm (7 1/2 x 11 1/4 in)
Sheet: 27.8 x 35.5cm (10 15/16 x 14 in)
Collection of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

Allen Ginsberg (American, 1926-1997)
William Burroughs at rest in the side-yard of his house… Lawrence, Kansas May 28, 1991…
1991
gelatin silver print
Image: 22.23 x 33.02cm (8 3/4 x 13 in)
Sheet: 27.9 x 35.4cm (11 x 13 15/16 in)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Gary S. Davis
© 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The National Gallery of Art, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW

Opening hours:
Daily 10.00am – 5.00pm

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Exhibition: ‘Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans’ at The National Gallery of Art, Washington

Exhibition dates: National Gallery of Art, January 18 – April 26, 2009; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 16 – August 23, 2009; Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 22 – December 27, 2009

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans
New York: Grove Press
1959

One of the seminal photography books of the twentieth century, Robert Frank’s The Americans changed photography forever, changed how America saw itself and became a cult classic. Like Eugene Atget’s positioning of the camera in an earlier generation Frank’s use of camera position is unique; his grainy and contrasty images add to his outsider vision of a bleak America; his sequencing of the images, like the cadences of the greatest music, masterful. One of the easiest things for an artist to do is to create one memorable image, perhaps even a group of 4 or 5 images that ‘hang’ together – but to create a narrative of 83 images that radically alter the landscape of both photography and country is, undoubtedly, a magnificent achievement.

The photographs in the posting appear by number order that they appear in the book.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the National Gallery of Art for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 1
Parade – Hoboken, New Jersey
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image: 21.3 x 32.4cm (8 3/8 x 12 3/4 in.)
Private collection, San Francisco
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Released at the height of the Cold War, The Americans was initially reviled, even decried as anti-American. Yet during the 1960s, many of the issues that Frank had addressed – racism, dissatisfaction with political leaders, skepticism about a rising consumer culture – erupted into the collective consciousness. The book came to be regarded as both prescient and revolutionary and soon was embraced with a cult-like following.

First published in France in 1958 and in the United States in 1959, Robert Frank’s The Americans is widely celebrated as the most important photography book since World War II. Including 83 photographs made largely in 1955 and 1956 while Frank (1924-2019) travelled around the United States, the book looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a profound sense of alienation, angst, and loneliness. With these prophetic photographs, Frank redefined the icons of America, noting that cars, jukeboxes, gas stations, diners, and even the road itself were telling symbols of contemporary life. Frank’s style – seemingly loose, casual compositions, with often rough, blurred, out-of-focus foregrounds and tilted horizons – was just as controversial and influential as his subject matter. The exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication by presenting all 83 photographs from The Americans in the order established by the book, and by providing a detailed examination of the book’s roots in Frank’s earlier work, its construction, and its impact on his later art.

Anonymous text from The National Gallery of Art website [Online] Cited 06/03/2009. No longer available online

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 2
City fathers – Hoboken, New Jersey
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image: 41.9 x 57.8cm (16 1/2 x 22 3/4 in.)
Susan and Peter MacGill
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 3
Political Rally – Chicago
1956
Gelatin silver print
Image and sheet: 57.8 x 39.4cm (22 3/4 x 15 1/2 in.)
Susan and Peter MacGill
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019) The Americans 4 'Funeral, St. Helena, South Carolina' 1955-1956

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 4
Funeral – St. Helena, South Carolina
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image and sheet: 39.7 x 58.1cm (15 5/8 x 22 7/8 in.)
Susan and Peter MacGill
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

“The photos revealed a bleaker, more dislocated view of America than Americans were used to (at least in photography). Frank’s “in-between moments” demonstrated that disequilibrium can seem more revealing, seeming to catch reality off-guard. In doing so the collection also announced to the world that photos with a completely objective reference / referent could be subjective, lyrical, reveal a state-of-mind. Looser framing, more forced or odd juxtapositions, “drive-by” photos and other elements offer a sense of the process that has produced the photos”

Lloyd Spencer on Discussing The Americans in Hardcore Street Photography

I couldn’t have put it better myself!

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 13
Charleston, South Carolina
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image: 41.3 x 59.1cm (16 1/4 x 23 1/4 in.)
Susan and Peter MacGill
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019) The Americans 14 'Ranch Market, Hollywood' 1955-1956

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 14
Ranch Market – Hollywood
1956
Gelatin silver print
Image: 31.4 x 48.3cm (12 3/8 x 19 in.)
Danielle and David Ganek
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 15
Butte, Montana
1956
Gelatin silver print
Overall: 20 x 30.2cm (7 7/8 x 11 7/8 in.)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Acquired through the generosity of the Young family in honour of Robert B. Menschel, 2003
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 18
Trolley – New Orleans
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image: 40.6 x 57.8cm (16 x 22 3/4 in.)
Susan and Peter MacGill
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
Contact sheets for The Americans
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

“Frank’s contact sheets take us back to the moment he made the photographs for The Americans. They show us what he saw as he traveled around The United States and how he responded to it. These sheets are not carefully crafted objects; in his eagerness to see what he had captured, Frank did not bother to order his film strips numerically or even to orientate them all in the same direction.”

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
Sequencing of The Americans numbers 32-36
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

“Almost halfway through the book Frank created a sequence united by the visual repetition of the car and the suggestion of its movement.”

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 32
U.S. 91, Leaving Blackfoot, Idaho
1956
Gelatin silver print
Image: 28.9 x 42.2cm (11 3/8 x 16 5/8 in.)
Collection of Barbara and Eugene Schwartz
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 33
St. Petersburg, Florida
1955
Gelatin silver print
Sheet: 22.2 x 33.7cm (8 3/4 x 13 1/4 in.)
Collection of Barbara and Eugene Schwartz
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 34
Covered Car – Long Beach, California
1956
Gelatin silver print
Image: 21.4 x 32.7cm (8 7/16 x 12 7/8 in.)
Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 35
Car accident, US 66 between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona
1955-1956
Gelatin silver print
Image: 31 x 47.5cm (12 3/16 x 18 11/16 in.)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Promised gift of Susan and Peter MacGill in honour of Anne d’Harnoncourt
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 36
U.S. 285, New Mexico
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image: 33.7 x 21.9cm (13 1/4 x 8 5/8 in.)
Mark Kelman, New York
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019) The Americans 37 'Bar, Detroit' 1955-1956

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 37
Bar – Detroit
1955
Gelatin silver print
Overall: 39.4 x 57.8cm (15 1/2 x 22 3/4 in.)
Sherry and Alan Koppel
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

The 50th anniversary of a groundbreaking publication will be celebrated in the nation’s capital with the exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans, premiering January 18 through April 26, 2009, in the National Gallery of Art’s West Building ground floor galleries. In 1955 and 1956, the Swiss-born American photographer Robert Frank (b. 1924) traveled across the United States to photograph, as he wrote, “the kind of civilisation born here and spreading elsewhere.” The result of his journey was The Americans, a book that looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a culture on the brink of massive social upheaval and one that changed the course of 20th-century photography.

First published in France in 1958 and in the United States in 1959, The Americans remains the single most important book of photographs published since World War II. The exhibition will examine both Frank’s process in creating the photographs and the book by presenting 150 photographs, including all of the images from The Americans, as well as 17 books, 15 manuscripts, and 28 contact sheets. In honour of the exhibition, Frank has created a film and participated in selecting and assembling three large collages. The exhibition will travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from May 17 through August 23, 2009, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 22 through December 27, 2009.

“The Americans is as powerful and provocative today as it was 50 years ago,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. “We are immensely grateful to Robert Frank and his wife, June Leaf, for their enthusiastic participation and assistance in all aspects of this exhibition and its equally ambitious catalogue. We also wish to thank Robert Frank for his donation of archival material related to The Americans, in addition to gifts of his photographs and other exhibition prints to the National Gallery of Art in 1990, 1994, and 1996, all of which formed the foundation of the project.”

Press release from the National Gallery of Art

Robert Frank (Swiss-Americans, 1924-2019)
The Americans 44
Elevator – Miami Beach
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image: 31.4 x 47.8cm (12 3/8 x 18 13/16 in.)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with funds contributed by Dorothy Norman, 1969
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019) The Americans 50 'Assembly line, Detroit' 1955-1956

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 50
Assembly line – Detroit
1955
Gelatin silver print
21.4 x 32.1cm (8 7/16 x 12 5/8 in.)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Purchase, 1959
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 51
Convention hall – Chicago
1956
Gelatin silver print
Image: 22.5 x 34.1cm (8 7/8 x 13 7/16 in.)
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Museum Purchase
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019) The Americans 55 'Beaufort, South Carolina' 1955-1956

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 55
Beaufort, South Carolina
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image and sheet: 31.1 x 47.6cm (12 1/4 x 18 3/4 in.)
Private collection
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 58
Political rally – Chicago
1956
Gelatin silver print
Image: 59.1 x 36.5cm (23 1/4 x 14 3/8 in.)
Betsy Karel
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 70
Coffee shop, railway station – Indianapolis
1956
Gelatin silver print
Overall (image): 22.9 x 34.6cm (9 x 13 5/8 in.)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Acquired through the generosity of Carol and David Appel, 2003
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss, 1924-2019)
The Americans 71
Chattanooga, Tennessee
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image: 20.8 x 29.5cm (8 3/16 x 11 5/8 in.)
Private collection
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

“It’s hard to stress how different The Americans was. Over the course of those 83 pictures – shot from Detroit to San Francisco to Chattanooga, Tennessee – Frank captured the country in images that were intentionally unglamorous. On a technical level, he brazenly tossed out an adherence to traditional ideas of composition, framing, focus, and exposure.”

Sarah Greenough, Senior Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Art in Washington

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019) The Americans 73 'Detroit - Belle Isle' 1955

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 73
Belle Isle – Detroit
1955
Gelatin silver print
Sheet: 29.2 x 42.5cm (11 1/2 x 16 3/4 in.)
Collection of Barbara and Eugene Schwartz
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 81
City Hall – Reno, Nevada
1956
Gelatin silver print
Image: 20.3 x 32.4cm (8 x 12 3/4 in.)
Private collection
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019) The Americans 83 'US 90 on route to Del Rio, Texas' 1955-1956

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
The Americans 83
U.S. 90, en route to Del Rio, Texas
1955
Gelatin silver print
Image (and board): 47.6 x 31.1cm (18 3/4 x 12 1/4 in.)
Private collection, courtesy Hamiltons Gallery, London
Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

National Gallery of Art
National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets
Constitution Avenue NW, Washington

Opening hours:
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National Gallery of Art website

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Exhibition: ‘Reading the modern photography book: changing perceptions’ at the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Exhibition dates: 18th January – 26th April, 2009

Looks a great exhibition for fans of photography books!

Many thankx to the National Gallery of Art, Washington for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

foto-auge (photo-eye)
Edited and with an introduction by Franz Roh, cover design by Jan Tschichold
(Stuttgart: Akademischer Verlag, Dr. Fritz Wedekind & Co., 1929)

“Also produced in conjunction with Film und Foto, this book showcases a wide variety of photographic practices as a way of examining the social importance of the medium’s ability to construct visual knowledge.”

Held in conjunction with Looking In: Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” this exhibition examines a variety of artistic and thematic approaches to the modern photography book, displaying examples that span the period from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. The photography book, more than simply a book containing photographs, is a publication composed by the careful sequencing and editing of photographic material. Often produced by a photographer, they present visual narratives through creative page design that frequently integrates photographs with text and graphic elements.

This focus exhibition organises 21 books from the Gallery’s library into four themes: “New Visions,” “Documented Realities,” “Postwar Scenes,” and “Conceptual Practices.” It highlights diverse projects from individual photographers such as László Moholy-Nagy, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Yasuhiro Ishimoto as well as collaborative projects from the Hungarian Work Circle (Munka Kör) and Andy Warhol’s Factory, revealing that the photography book is both a significant conveyer of contemporary experience and a witness to historical events.

The modern photography book, more than simply a book containing photographs, is a publication composed by the careful sequencing and editing of photographic material. Often produced by a photographer, these books present visual narratives through creative page design that frequently integrates photographs with text and graphic elements. Popular across the political spectrum, photography books have been published both as art objects and as documentary records. Through their organisation they foster a critical examination of the visual world, and as works of historical witness they have helped to construct cultural memories. Photography books have been a primary format for the arrangement and display of photographs, making them a vital but commonly overlooked component of the history of photography. Today they continue to provide an important forum for photographers to convey their work to a wide public audience.

Photographs have appeared in book format since their inception. For example, William Henry Fox Talbot’s commercially published The Pencil of Nature (1844) was one of the earliest explorations of photography’s narrative capabilities. Like all early photography books, Talbot’s photographs were printed separately from the letterpress text. It was not until the 1880s, with the development of the halftone plate and printing process, that mass-produced newspapers, magazines, and books regularly featured photographs. This invention, which allowed type and photographic images to be mechanically reproduced on the same press, dramatically changed the means by which the general public viewed and had access to photographs. By the 1920s the number of photographically illustrated publications had increased exponentially, and photographs regularly recounted events without explanatory text. As people began to see more and more photographs on a daily basis, they became far more visually literate. Set within this context, the modern mass-produced photography book challenged not only traditional narrative structures but also popular habits of reading and seeing.

Text from the National Gallery of Art website [Online] Cited 06/03/2009. No longer available online

Yasuhiro Ishimoto (Japanese-American, 1921-2012)
Aruhi Arutokoro (Someday, Somewhere)
Preface by Tsutomu Watanabe, design by Ryuuichi Yamashiro (Tokyo: Geibi Shuppan, 1958)

“This engaging publication juxtaposes photographs taken by Ishimoto in Chicago and Tokyo. Born in the United States, Ishimoto spent his childhood in Japan and later returned to the U.S. to attend school at the Institute of Design in Chicago. Finally settling in Tokyo, he influenced a new generation of postwar Japanese photographers interested in producing books.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
The Decisive Moment
(New York: Simon & Schuster, in collaboration with Éditions Verve, Paris, 1952)

“An important presentation of Cartier-Bresson’s photographs from the 1930s and 1940s, this large-format book helped to popularise his work, in which a distinctive documentary approach transforms ordinary moments into remarkable photographic visions.”

National Gallery of Art
National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets
Constitution Avenue NW, Washington

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