Jeu de Paume in Paris to exhibit " Robert Frank ~ A Foreign Look "

Thursday, 01 January 2009 19:59

 

PARIS - In his work Robert Frank (American, born in Switzerland in 1924) has developed a dialogue between photography and poetry, literature and painting, and created a language that both conveys subjective experience and continues the heritage of documentary photography. Robert Frank is one of the world's most influential photographers. For more than fifty years, he has broken the rules of photography and film making, challenging the boundaries between the still and the moving image. In 1996, he was presented with the Hasselblad Award, for his contribution to the development of post war-photography. On view 20 January through 22 March, 2009 at Jeu de Paume in Paris.

One of the highlights of his abundant production of photographs and films is a legendary book of photographs, The Americans (published in France in 1958). In the early 1950s, when living in New York, Frank also produced a series of images of Paris, his vision sharpened by his distance from Europe.

This exhibition proposes a dialogue between a selection of photographs of Paris, chosen by Robert Frank and Ute Eskildsen (presented at the Museum Folkwang in Essen) and the complete ensemble of photographs from The Americans, loaned for the occasion by the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris).

Extending the two photographic series, Paris and The Americans, this exhibition offers a selection of his movies, both in the exhibition — Pull My Daisy (1959, 28 minutes); True Story (2004, 30 minutes) and in a special programme shown in the Auditorium.

From 1949 onwards, Frank started to take pictures which reflected his search for artistic freedom and he travelled to numerous locations in South America and Europe shooting stories which revolutionised the expressive potential of the medium. Several of these groundbreaking photographic series' are displayed in the exhibition. The earliest, Peru (1949) features works taken whilst the young Frank travelled around this captivating country. The London series (1951-52) offers a rare and charming insight into a bygone era in the capital's history, whilst Wales (1953) focuses on one miner and his family as they struggle with the harsh realities of life in a remote mining village.

In 1954, Frank began a road-trip across the States. The resulting book The Americans radically changed the language of photographic narrative. Several works taken during this time are also included in the exhibition. Highlights are the Chicago series (1956), which portrays this vibrant city in the midst of the Congressional Elections, and Detroit (1955) which offers a fascinating insight into the daily lives of those working on one of Ford's infamous assembly lines.

Visit Jeu de Paume, Paris at : http://www.jeudepaume.org/?_langue_=english

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