The Americans
from: Steidl/National Gallery of Art, Washington
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Amazon.com Review:
Armed with a camera and a fresh cache of film and bankrolledby a Guggenheim Foundation grant, Robert Frank crisscrossed the UnitedStates during 1955 and 1956. The photographs he brought back form aportrait of the country at the time and hint at its future. He saw thehope of the future in the faces of a couple at city hall in Reno,Nevada, and the despair of the present in a grimy roofscape. He sawthe roiling racial tension, glamour, and beauty, and, perhaps becauseFrank himself was on the road, he was particularly attuned toAmericans' love for cars. Funeral-goers lean against a shiny sedan,lovers kiss on a beach blanket in front of their parked car, youngboys perch in the back seat at a drive-in movie. A sports car under adrop cloth is framed by two California palm trees; on the next page, ablanket is draped over a car accident victim's body in Arizona.
Robert Frank's Americans reappear 40 years after they were initiallypublished in this exquisite volume by Scalo. Each photograph (thereare more than 80 of them) stands alone on a page, while the captioninformation is included at the back of the book, allowing viewers anunfettered look at the images. JackKerouac's original introduction, commissioned when thephotographer showed the writer his work while sitting on a sidewalkone night outside of a party, provides the only accompanyingtext. Kerouac's words add narrative dimension to Frank's imagery whilein turn the photographs themselves perfectly illustrate the writer'sown work.
Product Description:
In 1958, the first edition of Robert Frank's The Americans was published in Paris. Les Americains contained Frank's 83 photographs in the same sequence as all subsequent editions, with the image on the right hand page, but juxtaposed with historical texts about American society and politics, gathered by Alain Bosquet. The following year, in the first American edition, the French texts were removed and an introduction by Jack Kerouac was added. Over the subsequent 50 years, The Americans has been republished in many editions, in numerous languages, with a variety of cover designs and even in a range of sizes. It is the most famous photography book ever published, and it changed the face of the medium forever.
Robert Frank discussed with his publisher, Gerhard Steidl, the idea of producing a new edition using modern scanning and the finest tritone printing. The starting point was to bring original prints from New York to Gottingen, Germany, where Steidl is based.
In July 2007, Frank visited Gottingen. A new format for the book was worked out and new typography selected. A new cover was designed and Frank chose the book cloth, foil for embossing and the endpaper. Most significantly, as he has done for every edition of The Americans, Frank changed the cropping of many of the photographs, usually including more information. Two images were changed completely from the original 1958 and 1959 editions.
Armed with a camera and a fresh cache of film and bankrolledby a Guggenheim Foundation grant, Robert Frank crisscrossed the UnitedStates during 1955 and 1956. The photographs he brought back form aportrait of the country at the time and hint at its future. He saw thehope of the future in the faces of a couple at city hall in Reno,Nevada, and the despair of the present in a grimy roofscape. He sawthe roiling racial tension, glamour, and beauty, and, perhaps becauseFrank himself was on the road, he was particularly attuned toAmericans' love for cars. Funeral-goers lean against a shiny sedan,lovers kiss on a beach blanket in front of their parked car, youngboys perch in the back seat at a drive-in movie. A sports car under adrop cloth is framed by two California palm trees; on the next page, ablanket is draped over a car accident victim's body in Arizona.
Robert Frank's Americans reappear 40 years after they were initiallypublished in this exquisite volume by Scalo. Each photograph (thereare more than 80 of them) stands alone on a page, while the captioninformation is included at the back of the book, allowing viewers anunfettered look at the images. JackKerouac's original introduction, commissioned when thephotographer showed the writer his work while sitting on a sidewalkone night outside of a party, provides the only accompanyingtext. Kerouac's words add narrative dimension to Frank's imagery whilein turn the photographs themselves perfectly illustrate the writer'sown work.
Product Description:
In 1958, the first edition of Robert Frank's The Americans was published in Paris. Les Americains contained Frank's 83 photographs in the same sequence as all subsequent editions, with the image on the right hand page, but juxtaposed with historical texts about American society and politics, gathered by Alain Bosquet. The following year, in the first American edition, the French texts were removed and an introduction by Jack Kerouac was added. Over the subsequent 50 years, The Americans has been republished in many editions, in numerous languages, with a variety of cover designs and even in a range of sizes. It is the most famous photography book ever published, and it changed the face of the medium forever.
Robert Frank discussed with his publisher, Gerhard Steidl, the idea of producing a new edition using modern scanning and the finest tritone printing. The starting point was to bring original prints from New York to Gottingen, Germany, where Steidl is based.
In July 2007, Frank visited Gottingen. A new format for the book was worked out and new typography selected. A new cover was designed and Frank chose the book cloth, foil for embossing and the endpaper. Most significantly, as he has done for every edition of The Americans, Frank changed the cropping of many of the photographs, usually including more information. Two images were changed completely from the original 1958 and 1959 editions.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Robert Frank, not Jack Kerouac
contrary to what is listed, The Americans is by Robert Frank, the photographer. the photos are timeless and i still use them to teach photography to college students
jack kerouac only wrote the forward.
set the record straight for non-photographers.
thank you.
Rating: 
- iNTERESTING
Excellent print quality.. A glance at common people in random daily-life shots. It's a book worth a place in your hands
Rating: - It's not by Jack K.
This book was not by Jack Kerouac. It's by Robert Frank. It's one of the seminal books in the history of photography. Many see it as a hate letter to America, but that's a shallow reading of the book. It's some of the best documentary done by a non-documentarian of the American culture of the period. If you really want to see great photography with a point of view, this is a good start.
I find lots of listings get authorship wrong when the book is about a photographer's work. Amazon ... Read More
Rating: - The definitive "The Americans"
We're lucky to have this edition. Robert Frank is an old man with health issues now. That he is healthy enough to oversee this work is wonderful. Everything about this edition - especially in comparison to the 2007 Delpine edition I purchased earlier this year - is first-rate. I wish I had known this was coming out!
The book is a little smaller than the Delpine, but that's the only real negative (if it is one) I can think of. The main thing to me is that the photos themselves are how ... Read More
Rating: - Black and White and Grey
Looking at this again after many years ( I first came across it about 25 years ago) the images are as poignant asever. This is truly a great book of photographs and is perhaps the best photojournalist's collection ever published. The new edition has all the gravity and attention to detail that the work deserves.
- Robert Frank, not Jack Kerouaccontrary to what is listed, The Americans is by Robert Frank, the photographer. the photos are timeless and i still use them to teach photography to college students
jack kerouac only wrote the forward.
set the record straight for non-photographers.
thank you.
- iNTERESTINGExcellent print quality.. A glance at common people in random daily-life shots. It's a book worth a place in your hands
- It's not by Jack K.This book was not by Jack Kerouac. It's by Robert Frank. It's one of the seminal books in the history of photography. Many see it as a hate letter to America, but that's a shallow reading of the book. It's some of the best documentary done by a non-documentarian of the American culture of the period. If you really want to see great photography with a point of view, this is a good start.
I find lots of listings get authorship wrong when the book is about a photographer's work. Amazon ... Read More
- The definitive "The Americans"We're lucky to have this edition. Robert Frank is an old man with health issues now. That he is healthy enough to oversee this work is wonderful. Everything about this edition - especially in comparison to the 2007 Delpine edition I purchased earlier this year - is first-rate. I wish I had known this was coming out!
The book is a little smaller than the Delpine, but that's the only real negative (if it is one) I can think of. The main thing to me is that the photos themselves are how ... Read More
- Black and White and GreyLooking at this again after many years ( I first came across it about 25 years ago) the images are as poignant asever. This is truly a great book of photographs and is perhaps the best photojournalist's collection ever published. The new edition has all the gravity and attention to detail that the work deserves.
