Don’t blink – Robert Frank

Robert Frank was born in 1924 in Zurich in a wealthy Jewish family. When he was 20, he set off on a journey to America, which resulted in the album titled Peru. After returning to Europe, he travelled to England and Wales. Pictures taken there made up another publication – Black White and Things. In 1953, he visited the other hemisphere once again. In New York he started to collaborate with renowned fashion houses and magazines, including “McCall’s”, “Vogue”, and “Fortune”. His most notable artistic project – album The Americans – followed a three-year trip across the United States. It portrayed all layers of the American society, dispelling the myth of America being the promised land. Out of 28 thousand pictures, 83 were selected to the publication that influenced the history of photography, and it was Jack Kerouac, a leading figure of the Beat Generation, to contribute an introduction thereto.

Having published The Americans, Frank became interested in film. He recorded over 30 experimental and documentary movies. In the 1970s, he returned to photography, however transformed his style from documentary to more abstract and experimental. The album The Lines of My Hand, being a kind of the artist’s photographic autobiography, dates back to the same period.

Director: Laura Israel

Producers: Melinda Shopsin, Laura Israel, Ruth Waldburger

Distribution: VEGA Distribution

USA, 2015, 82 min