FRANK, Robert - London / Wales

The first edition from Scalo-Verlag is also available, price on request!

Personal statement by Swiss-american photographer Robert FRANK

"The war is over; the brave French confirm their superiority. Love, Paris and flowers ... London, on the other hand, was black, white and gray, the elegance, the style - all against the backdrop of the ever-changing fog. I met a Welshman who told of the miners there, and I had read 'So Green Was My Valley' by Richard Llewellyn. From that came my one attempt to tell a 'story'." (Robert FRANK)

Background information

The photo book 'London/Wales' by Robert FRANK is a remarkable precursor to his famous photo book 'The Americans'. It combines two series of images whose contrast could not be stronger. The black and white photographs of London bankers, workers and children, and Welsh miners with their families show two worlds: the world of money and that of the everyday life of coal workers in post-war Britain. With these photographs, Robert FRANK tells the timeless story of a society in transition. They are early testimonies to his search for new forms of poetic photography.

Content

The multi-layered, atmospherically dense images illustrate the relationship and distance between social classes in a time of upheaval. This volume reveals the photographer's early interest in describing social conditions, the narrative possibilities of series of images, and his innovative use of the expressive possibilities of the medium." (slightly adapted publisher's text, © Steidl Verlag 2007)

About the Swiss-American photographer, Robert FRANK (1924-2019)

Photo books by and about the work of Robert FRANK