“MAYBE THE PHOTOGRAPH ISN’T ENOUGH”

FRANK, Robert. Hold still__keep going. Zurich-Berlin-New York: Scalo, (2001). Quarto, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $2500.

First edition of a major photobook on the revolutionary photography and cinema of Robert Frank—“one of the most important photographers of the 20th century”—inscribed by him, “Robert Frank May 19.02,” published to accompany a 2001-2001 traveling retrospective of his work, featuring over 100 photographic color and black-and-white illustrations, including many previously unpublished images, along with an interview and essays on his work, in original dust jacket.

Robert Frank "changed the face of photography in the documentary mode… and paved the way for three decades of photographs exploring the personal poetics of lived experience" (Parr & Badger I:247). He is "one of the most important photographers of the 20th century" (Greenough, xiv). Not long after publication of Frank's groundbreaking work, Les Américains (1958), he began experimenting with film, and later combined his cinematic work with textual and photographic collages. To many critics, "Frank's work can be best summed up by the work 'Hold Still—Keep Moving' of 1989," which was also used as the title for this photobook, issued to accompany his 2000-2001 retrospective at the Museum Foldwang in Essen, Germany, that also traveled to Spain and Portugal (Warren, Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Photography I:562). "Filmic, multilayered and narrative, Frank's art probes the edge and is charged with unabashed emotion" (Library Journal). Featuring over 100 duotones (several in color), including many previously unpublished images. Containing an interview with Frank conducted by editor Ute Eskildsen, along with essays by Christoph Ribbat, Wolfgang Beilenhoff and a biographical essay on Frank by Eskildsen. With chronologies of his life and work, and bibliography.

A fine inscribed copy.