
Robert Frank's 'The Americans'
The Art of Documentary Photography
Jonathan Day(Author)
Intellect Books (Publisher)
Published on 15. February 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
186 pages
978-1-84150-315-8 (ISBN)
Description
In the mid-1950s, Swiss-born New Yorker Robert Frank embarked on a ten-thousand-mile road trip across America, capturing thousands of photographs of all levels of a rapidly changing society. The resultant photo book, The Americans, represents a seminal moment in both photography and in America's understanding of itself. To mark the book's fiftieth anniversary, Jonathan Day revisits this pivotal work and contributes a thoughtful and revealing critical commentary. Though the importance of The Americans has been widely acknowledged, it still retains much of its mystery. This comprehensive analysis places it thoroughly in the context of contemporary photography, literature, music, and advertising from its own period through the present.
Reviews / Votes
Robert Frank never did say very much and there is not a single word by him in 'The Americans'. Jonathan Day in this book has expertly taken over as Frank's narrator [...] As Jack Kerouac says in his introduction to 'The Americans', 'to Robert Frank I now give this message: you got eyes'. And now we have the words. -- Eamonn McCabe, Picture Editor of The Guardian from 1988 to 2001More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Intellect
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
352 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84150-315-8 (9781841503158)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2011
1st Edition
Intellect Books
€30.99
Available for download
Person
Jonathan Day is a senior lecturer in visual communications and theoretical and historical studies in art and design.
Content
Foreword by Eamonn McCabe
Introduction
Part One: America and The Americans
Chapter 1: Frank and the 50s
Chapter 2: Developing The Americans
Chapter 3: 'The Americans' as the love child of 'art' and 'documentary'
Chapter 4: The creation, selection and programming of The Americans images
Chapter 5: Image and text
Part Two: Themes in The Americans
Chapter 5: People of the Flag
Chapter 6: On the Road
Chapter 7: Losing my religion: new icons for a new civilisation
Chapter 8: The Americans and The Family of Man
Chapter 9: The Americans and the promotional images of Standard Oil
Chapter 10: The primacy of the visual
Part Three: The Americans as a photographic sequence
Conclusion
Introduction
Part One: America and The Americans
Chapter 1: Frank and the 50s
Chapter 2: Developing The Americans
Chapter 3: 'The Americans' as the love child of 'art' and 'documentary'
Chapter 4: The creation, selection and programming of The Americans images
Chapter 5: Image and text
Part Two: Themes in The Americans
Chapter 5: People of the Flag
Chapter 6: On the Road
Chapter 7: Losing my religion: new icons for a new civilisation
Chapter 8: The Americans and The Family of Man
Chapter 9: The Americans and the promotional images of Standard Oil
Chapter 10: The primacy of the visual
Part Three: The Americans as a photographic sequence
Conclusion