Livorno, Italy, 1961
Vintage gelatin silver print
Image size: 13 ½ × × 8 ¾ in
Framed size: 24 ¾ × 20 in
Signed on verso
June 3, 2024
How is a photograph like a sculpture? By placing the silhouettes of two figures in front of the same expanse of sky, Robert Frank visually links the young man bounding down the stairs with the statue towering above him, highlighting how both gestures—the boy's striding descent and the statue's outstretched hand—are now frozen together in time.
This photograph was made in a period when Frank was looking beyond photography, towards other mediums. In 1961, he received his first solo show, Robert Frank: Photographer, at the Art Institute of Chicago, which featured photographs from his book The Americans, but the notoriety of that work, and a critical response that Frank found to be ham-fisted, had led him to look towards film as his favored medium.
It is likely no coincidence that it was a return to Europe that made Frank feel free to continue to shoot still-photographs, an ocean away from his reputation as the unvarnished chronicler of the American experience. It's intriguing to see Frank examining photography's ability to stop time and movement, at the exact point in his career when he was exploring the potential of motion pictures.
