Robert Frank

Opening reception: Wednesday, 30 October 4 to 9pm

Opening hours: Wed-Sat 2-7pm & by appointment

Zander Galerie is pleased to present for the first time in its Paris location, a selection of photographs by Robert Frank from his book Flower Is, published in 1987 by Yugensha, Tokyo.

The book is structured in three sections. The first section captures Frank’s experience photographing flowers in Paris in 1949, and 1951-52. The second section shifts to 1955 and Frank’s visit to the Ford River Rouge plant in Detroit. In the early 1970’s Frank began to use the Polaroid Land Camera and the positive/negative film process. The third section features this more personal work, depicting scenes from Frank’s homes in Mabou, Nova Scotia, and New York City.

In the introduction of Flower Is Frank reflects: “By 1949 I had lived in New York City for two years. When I returned to Paris, I was 26. The beauty of that city touched me. I could best express my admiration by photographing in the streets. Every day I would go out to look at the way Parisians sold and loved their flowers. It was the beginning of using my camera as a tool for that “private affair.” Showing my hopes and my sadness with photographs.”

One of the most influential figures in the history of photography, Frank redefined the aesthetic of both the still and the moving image through his pictures and films. Early in his career, after receiving his first Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955, the Swiss-born photographer embarked on a two-year trip across the United States during which he captured over 28,000 candid, poignant images of American life in the mid 20th century. Eighty-three of those images were ultimately included in his groundbreaking monograph The Americans, first published by Robert Delpire in 1958 in Paris (as Les Américains) and the following year by Grove Press in New York, with an introduction by Jack Kerouac. 

To mark the centenary of Robert Frank’s birth, exhibitions of his work are on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Folkwang, Essen; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. His work has been the subject of major exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Tate Modern, London; Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona; Fotomuseum and Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Albertina Museum in Vienna.

Frank received two Guggenheim Fellowships, an American Film Institute grant, the Hasselblad Award, the International Center of Photography Award, honorary PhDs from the University of Gothenburg and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax, and the Edward MacDowell Medal, among other honors. 

His work is collected by international institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Detroit Institute of Arts; Fotomuseum Winterthur; George Eastman House, Rochester; Maison Européene de la Photographie, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Tate Modern, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 1990, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., established the Robert Frank Collection, comprised primarily of prints, negatives and contact sheets.