Robert Frank

[lutz]

<i>This is turning into another argument along the lines of "if you don't agree this is important, you don't understand what's going on", which is just another status game.

 

If you are impressed by his photographs, that's fine but I, along with 99.999% of the human race, am not.</i><p>

Harvey, isn't that saying "if you don't agree this is _unimportant_, you don't understand what is going on"...?<p>

BTW, I feel comfortable among the remaining 0.001% of the human race (about 80.000 per generation, make that 200.000 over the last five decades). The discussion about influential or not is purely academic. I have been deeply _moved_ by his images, and that is the most

a photographer can achieve, IMHO.

[john_r._fulton_jr.]

These controversies always get me going. My vote is for Ayrton Senna.

[john_r._fulton_jr.]

Bill Mitchell----THANKS for the tip on the Robert Frank/Walker Evans book. It

sounds great!!! Bad news is that the average price is more than 10X what you

paid. Anyway, it sounds like a great read (& look). Thanks again.

[h._p.]

"Most people haven't heard of Luca Bartolomes Pacioli,"

 

Well. Pacioli didn't invent double entry book-keeping, he only claimed that he had. There's some evidence it goes back to Pre-Phaeronic times in Egypt through the medium of 'broken sticks'. Which just goes to prove that for every silly argument there's an even sillier one, somewhere. As to my cat's influence: around these parts he's known as 'the kingmaker' for reasons we won't explore here.

[h._p.]

Harvey, isn't that saying "if you don't agree this is _unimportant_, you don't understand what is going on"...?

 

OK, I'll answer this one, too. I'm not saying that and you'd have to really stretch my meaning to extract that from what I wrote.

 

It would be so much nicer if people would stop pretending that the right hand of god told them the truth. You like a particular photographer's work? That's good. What you shouldn't do is insist that anyone who doesn't agree with you is wrong, deficient or plain contrary.

[lutz]

Hmmm, Harvey...<p>

<i>What you shouldn't do is insist that anyone who doesn't agree with you is wrong, deficient or plain contrary.</i><p>

While I totally agree with this, and I absolutely do not want to start an argument, I just can't help wondering about your earlier posts:<p><i>

"a view which I, for one, consider nonsense", "silly assertion", "I, along with 99.999% of the human race"...</i><p>Don't you feel there is some contradiction? And as far as <i>"you'd have to really stretch my meaning to extract that from what I wrote"</i> is concerned, that was just basic dialectics which at times can be quite revealing. ;-) <p>Cheers.

[zora_suleman]

Boring, boring men

[lutz]

You're right, Zora. And thanks for the original heads-up.

[h._p.]

Boring, boring women.

 

Sorry, was I typing aloud?

[MTC Photography]

The picture sequence techniquie used in Robert Frank's The Americans

influenced Ralph Gibson's diptych technique, by jaxtaposition of two

seeming unrelated photographs to creat an overtone.

[nesrani]

Harvey - how deep a hole do you intend to dig for yourself on this thread?

[h._p.]

Dunno, 8 or 10 feet perhaps.....

 

<grin>

[travis1]

Harvey, I think you're ok. Everyone has a right to their opinion, and I think everyone should share their opinion without undermining each other's.;l

[msitaraman]

My votes are for Ayrton Senna and/or Jim Clark, maybe Stirling Moss/Ascari. Jackie Stewart as one of the most likeable.

 

I do think Robert Frank has been very influential; even if his artistic heirs may never have heard of him, he's left his stamp all over post 1960 street and people photography.

 

I'm a bit confused, wasn't it HC-B's essay on America that was rejected for its negativity? Or Robert Frank too? In either case, I'm not surprised. There's a strong compulsion towards eliminating the negative in the American discourse. Its almost part of being or feeling American.

 

This causes all kinds of problems, as we have lately seen...

[tim_taylor3]

I don't know how the Gran Prix champion thread got mixed in with Robert Frank, but here are my opinions:

 

GP Champ: JMF, Jim Clark and Aryton Senna. No real drivers since the automated junk they are driving today.

 

Robert Frank - Enjoyed his 'The Americans' but later work does not appeal to me. However, he has been one of the main enfluences, along with W. Gene Smith, William Albert Allard, as to powerful statements through imagery.