Robert Frank
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker, who became an American binational.
His most notable work, the 1958 book titled The Americans, earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and nuanced outsider's view of American society.
Frank later expanded into film and video and experimented with manipulating photographs and photomontage.
Frank's 1972 documentary of the Rolling Stones, Cocksucker Blues, is arguably his best known film. The film shows the Stones on tour, engaging in heavy drug use and group sex. Frank said of the Stones, "It was great to watch them — the excitement. But my job was after the show. What I was photographing was a kind of boredom. It's so difficult being famous. It's a horrendous life. Everyone wants to get something from you."
Filmography
- 1959: Pull My Daisy (with Alfred Leslie)
- 1961: The Sin of Jesus
- 1963: O.K. End Here
- 1965/1968: Me And My Brother
- 1969: Conversations in Vermont
- 1969: Life-Raft Earth
- 1971: About Me: A Musical
- 1972: Cocksucker Blues
- 1975: Keep Busy (with Rudy Wurlitzer)
- 1980: Life Dances On
- 1981: Energy and How to Get It (with Rudy Wurlitzer)
- 1983: This Song For Jack
- 1985: Home Improvements
- 1987: Candy Mountain (with Rudy Wurlitzer)
- 1989: Hunter
- 1990: C’est vrai! (One Hour)
- 1992: Last Supper
- 1994: Moving Pictures
- 2002: Paper Route
- 2004/2008: True Story