Robert Frank, the paper begins, thought 1a.

My one page prospectus detailing my Frank/Gowin project is due October 6, 2009.  The research paper journey begins!

Robert Frank is alive and living in New York City! Here is an up to date  review of his classic book, The Americans —

Elevator, Miami Beach, 1955

His images have been called sad, pessimistic and burdened.  You can see that the elevator girl doesn’t appear  happy. She looks bored, distracted, disconnected. She works in an elevator and you can’t help but wonder at the sheer monotony of it. Moving up and down in the same vertical shaft all day. In the photograph, people pass by in a blur. It is sad and pessimistic.  I’m sure that at the right time and the right place she could have forced a smileor having seen a friend  come alive for a moment. But the truth is this is but one of 83 photographs of a collection. A series of thoughts that add up to a larger thought. All the photographs ( I will assiduously avoid the term photos or pics or pictures) are not sad. In fact some are happy and if not happy, not sad either. But the thoughts add up and the sum is one of the aspects I will  be exploring.