Thu 12/29 @ 7PM
Photographer/filmmaker Robert Frank, now 91, is best known for his powerful 1958 book The Americans. The Swiss photographer arrived in the U.S. in 1947 at the age of 22 and began his career as a fashion photographer. He soon left that glossy world of illusion behind to follow in the footsteps of one of his key influences, Walker Evans, and spent a year traveling to U.S. looking deeply into the lives of real Americans that was anything but Leave It to Beaver optimistic and upbeat. And because of that it was initially met with hostility, published first in France and later criticized by established arbiters of photography. It’s since become one of the more influential works of photography.
By the late ’50s, Frank was moving into filmmaking including the 1972 Rolling Stones film Cocksucker Blues; much later he directed music videos. The documentary Don’t Blink: Robert Frank includes clips from some of these films as well as music by artists like Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Lou Reed It’s screening at the Akron Art Museum. It’s free.