HE ALSO DID THIS

Robert Frank just died, on Monday. He was 94. He was a damn good photographer whose lifes work would be complete if he did nothing other than The Americans, a book of his photographic images, with text by Jack Kerouac, published in 1958. In the glossy days of Ozzie and Harriet, white picket fences and All-Americans, he chose as his subject matter the flip side. The seedy, the poor, the tough, all the shit that the get-off-my-lawners wanted to pretend didn't exist.

Robert Frank, 1973, photographed by Richard Avedon.

 

Frank also made films. A year after The Americans, he made his first film, Pull My Daisy, with narration by Kerouac and featuring poets Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky and Gregory Corso. That's some heavy hitters. In the early seventies, he worked with some other heavy hitters, making a feature length film with the Rolling Stones. (His photography was also featured on the cover of Exile on Main St.) Finished in 1972, the film, Cocksucker Blues was never widely released, apparently a little too telling. If you know anything about the Stones, you can probably think of a dozen things that happen behind the scenes with them on tour that they would think would damage their career. Probably two dozen. The Stones tried to keep the lid on it but Frank wanted it released. After the dust settled the court order stated that it could be shown, but only if Frank was present in the theater. Now that Frank is dead, what happens?

~ NOTE: HOSTED AT YOUTUBE. UPLOADER UNKNOWN. ~

I only mention this because I was amazed to find it online, on YouTube of all places. There are a few links to it on dubious looking sites so I went way back in the search results. If you want to see it, particularly if you're a Robert Frank person, I'd check it out right away. With Frank's profile raised after his passing, it probably won't be up for long. Check the comment by "whenAM radiorocked" under the video (at YouTube) for the story of how it ended up there. And check out Frank's work. Photography today would be different if he had not been so tuned to the street.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Visit:
Robert Frank Dies; Pivotal Documentary Photographer Was 94 at NY Times
The Shock of Robert Frank's "The Americans" at The New Yorker
Robert Frank at Wikipedia
Robert Frank photos via Google image search
Video:
The Rolling Stones - Rocks Off at YouTube Shot by Frank