Robert Frank's seminal work, 'The Americans', emerged from his 1954 Guggenheim Fellowship and reflected the complexities of the American Dream through over 27,000 photographs. Despite its initial poor reception and critique, it became an influential piece in 20th-century photography. The Rijksmuseum's exhibition 'American Photography' opens with Frank's work, emphasizing the lasting impact it has on the photographic narrative. The curators’ journey parallels Frank's, exploring diverse artistic expressions and societal reflections in photography over the decades.
The making of a broad, voluminous picture record of things American, past and present, was the Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank's deliberately loose statement of intent for his Guggenheim Fellowship application in 1954.
However, the parallels that emerge between his journey and that of the curators, completed seven decades later, are as striking as they are unobvious.
Frank's story is retold in the catalogue to American Photography, an expansive survey show at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum.
It comes as no surprise that his magnum opus will open the show, given the long shadow his book casts on photography in the US.
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