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ROBERT FRANK
photographed by Richard Avedon, 1975
The people who made his book The Americans important were the people of my generation - the people who came of age in the late Sixties, that generation of people dealing with the Vietnam War and questions about the country. The book was a fractured view of the country. It addressed a lot of the obvious metaphors for what America was like, and turned them on end. I first saw that book when I came back from the South in the late Sixties, and I was pretty upset about the country. So then you see this photo book that reflects your emotions of the time, and it becomes a very important work to you. It felt very close to what you were experiencing. Later, you saw it as a remarkable personal expression. At first, the book was a combination of politics and art to me. That's what made it inspirational - that you could actually get your political feelings into pictures. I had been trying, and when I saw that book, I felt very much at home with the guy. Frank is very direct and not overly emotional, but a straightforward guy. He's right to the point. He takes life very seriously. He's low-key, kind of egoless, and very harsh at the same time. As for his other work, I've never been disappointed. I don't know how much of a weight that book is around his neck. Probably a lot. It's a book that rocks everybody.
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