This week Photographer is Robert Frank. I borrowed his book, Paris, from the library and I think the photos are kind of dead. Not the quality. I like his work and the patterns and style of his work is great. I am also not talking about the lack of color. The subjects are just dead. And it flows though out the book. He took a few shots of a funeral which suggests death but even those that suggest love seem dry. The first word that came to me after looking at all his photographs was mort which means “death” in French. And the funny thing is I did not even know he was living in Paris before he moved to New York or that he had tight connections with the French besides the pictures were taken in France. I think in Spanish and France on some occasions. And on this occasion I actually thought in French.
My favorite photo from Paris is a picture of a baby sitting up smiling in a big -old timely stroller and behind the stroller is an old auto-mobile. It looks like Frank was trying to say the baby was driving the stroller (the parent was missing) just like the gentleman is driving his car. It suggest a little bit of humor which is why I like it.
In the back of Paris is a little interview between Frank and Ute Eskildsen. I like a few things Frank said:
I was very aware that things don’t last if you’re not at the top. That was very clear. But I also knew that here (in America) you had the possibility of doing your own work.
…there’s the ambition to overcome everything and get rid of the old. That’s the voyage through America.