Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/06/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> but I think that if > he is judge by what he's done in those "other directions," he'd be > considered a very minor figure. I don't have a problem viewing minor figures. I have "discovered" (i.e. drove a car and seen a sign pointed to a stranger's driveway) the works of obscure folk-artists in the Maritimes who have moved me more than Mark Rothko ever has, but perhaps that's just me. - --- B. D. Responds - I don't either - have a problem with minor figures, and agree with you when you say some have moved you more than some of the greats; I feel the same way. But my point about Frank is that he appeared to be such an amazingly good photographer, with a very strong vision, that it's a real loss for the photo world that he walked away from that. > It is only because of The Americans that > anyone pays any attention to Frank. Exile on Main Street. C*cksucker Blues. There are plenty of fans of the Rolling Stones (when they actually lived up to their billing as "The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World") who would disagree with you. Not necessarily photographers or art experts, granted, but I know several who love the classic album sleeve and call the rock-documentary "the best ever made" and they don't have the slightest clue who Robert Frank is or what The Americans was. They are simply spellbound by the work he did for a band that, to be truthful, have never exactly been obscure. I would hazard to guess that more people have seen Frank's photos on Exile on Main Street than have ever picked up The Americans. Again, perhaps I am wrong. - --- Again, you are undoubtedly correct that far more people know the work he did for the Stones - but don't know that it's his work - than know the Americans. But that's truly sad in terms of what it says about people's educations in general and visual educations in particular. By the same token, when I was teaching my photo class last semester and Robert Blake was charged with murder, in a complete aside I mentioned the movie In Cold Blood and got cold stares. Turned out none of the kids had ever seen it. Okay, I asked, but how many of you have read the book? Not a single hand went up. In a class of 15 of students who are supposed to be 'the best and the brightest.' B. D. > B. D. > Throwing the old grenade and ducking.;-) - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html