Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Fred McDarrah
Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Robert Frank

1967

$1,800
£1,366.78
€1,563.02
CA$2,514.86
A$2,797.07
CHF 1,460.55
MX$34,037.42
NOK 18,653.39
SEK 17,493.59
DKK 11,665.40
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Robert Frank in Central Park. Shoot A film during Anti-War protests. April !5 1967 Robert Frank (born November 9, 1924) is an important figure in American photography and film. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled The Americans, was influential, and earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and nuanced outsider's view of American society. Frank later expanded into film and video and experimented with manipulating photographs and photomontage. Frank was born in Switzerland. His father, Hermann originating from Frankfurt, Germany had become stateless after losing his German citizenship as a Jew. They had to apply for the Swiss citizenship of Frank and his older brother, Manfred. In 1946. Frank emigrated to the United States in 1947, and secured a job in New York City as a fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar. After meeting Edward Steichen, participated in the group show 51 American Photographers at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) He worked as a freelance photojournalist for magazines including McCall's, Vogue, and Fortune. Associating with other contemporary photographers such as Saul Leiter and Diane Arbus, he helped form what Jane Livingston has termed The New York School of photographers during the 1940s and 1950s. With the aid of his major artistic influence, the photographer Walker Evans, Frank secured a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1955 to travel across the United States and photograph all strata of its society. Cities he visited included Detroit, Michigan; Savannah, Georgia; Miami Beach and St. Petersburg, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Reno, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; Butte, Montana; and Chicago, Illinois. Shortly after returning to New York in 1957, Frank met Beat writer Jack Kerouac on the sidewalk outside a party and showed him the photographs from his travels. Kerouac immediately told Frank "Sure I can write something about these pictures," and he contributed the introduction to the U.S. edition of The Americans. Frank also became lifelong friends with Allen Ginsberg, and was one of the main visual artists to document the Beat subculture Les Américains was first published in 1958 by Robert Delpire in Paris, and finally in 1959 in the United States by Grove Press, where it initially received substantial criticism. The Americans became a seminal work in American photography and art history, and is the work with which Frank is most clearly identified. In 1961, Frank received his first individual show, entitled Robert Frank: Photographer, at the Art Institute of Chicago. He also showed at MoMA in New York in 1962. A celebratory exhibit of The Americans was displayed in 2009 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. By the time The Americans was published in the United States, Frank had moved away from photography to concentrate on filmmaking. Among his films was the 1959 Pull My Daisy, which was written and narrated by Kerouac and starred Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and others from the Beat circle. The Beats emphasized spontaneity, and the film conveyed the quality of having been thrown together or even improvised. In 1960, Frank was staying in Pop artist George Segal's basement while filming Sin of Jesus with a grant from Walter K. Gutman. Isaac Babel's story was transformed to center on a woman working on a chicken farm in New Jersey. It was originally supposed to be filmed in six weeks in and around New Brunswick, but Frank ended up shooting for six months. His 1972 documentary of the Rolling Stones, Cocksucker Blues, is arguably his best known film. The film shows the Stones while on their '72 tour, engaging in heavy drug use and group sex. Mick Jagger reportedly told Frank, "It's a fucking good film, Robert, but if it shows in America we'll never be allowed in the country again." The Stones sued to prevent the film's release. Frank's photography also appeared on the cover of the Rolling Stones' album Exile on Main St.. Fred W. McDarrah, 1926-2007 Veteran Village Voice photographer Fred W. McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, its off-off-Broadway actors, troubadours, politicians, agitators and social protests. Fred captured Jack Kerouac frolicking with women at a New Year’s bash in 1958, Andy Warhol adjusting a movie-camera lens in his silver-covered factory, and Bob Dylan offering a salute of recognition outside Sheridan Square near the Voice’s old office. Not just a social chronicler, McDarrah was a great photo-journalist. For years, McDarrah was the Voice's only photographer and, for decades, he ran the Voice’s photo department, where he helped train dozens of young photographers, including James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland and Marc Asnin. His mailbox was simply marked "McPhoto." An exhibit of McDarrah’s photos of artists presented by the Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea was hailed by The New York Times as “a visual encyclopedia of the era’s cultural scene.” artists in their studios, (Alice Neel, Philip Guston, Stuart Davis, Robert Smithson, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline), actors (Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro on the set of “Taxi Driver”), musicians (Janis Joplin, Alice Cooper, Bob Dylan) and documentary images of early happenings and performances (Yayoi Kusama, Charlotte Moorman, Al Hansen, Jim Dine, Nam June Paik). The many images of Andy Warhol include the well-known one with his Brillo boxes at the Stable Gallery in 1964. Woody Allen, Diane Arbus, W. H. Auden, Francis Bacon, Joan Baez, Louise Bourgeois, David Bowie, Jimmy Breslin, William Burroughs, John Cage, Leo Castelli, Christo, Leonard Cohen, Merce Cunningham, William de Kooning, Jim Dine, Mark di Suvero, Marcel Duchamp, Bob Dylan, Federico Fellini, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Indiana, Mick Jagger, Jasper Johns, Kusama, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Nam June Paik, Elvis Presley, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Robert Rauschenberg, Lou Reed, James Rosenquist, Mark Rothko, Ed Ruscha, Robert Smithson, Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, and others. McDarrah’s prints have been collected in depth by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington. His work is in numerous public and private collections.
  • Creator:
    Fred McDarrah (1926 - 2007, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1967
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 10 in (25.4 cm)Width: 8 in (20.32 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38210658462

More From This Seller

View All
Ivan Karp Sherman Drexler Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph New York City Photo
By Fred W. McDarrah
Located in Surfside, FL
Ivan Karp Sherman Drexler Ivan C. Karp (June 4, 1926 – June 28, 2012) was an American art dealer, gallerist and author instrumental in the emergence of pop art in the 1960s. Karp ...
Category

20th Century Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Vintage Print Silver Gelatin Signed Photograph Sidney Janis, Conrad Janis, NYC
By Fred McDarrah
Located in Surfside, FL
signed in ink and with photographer stamp verso and hand written title. Sidney Janis (July 8, 1896 – November 23, 1989) was a wealthy clothing manufacturer and art collector who ope...
Category

1960s American Modern Black and White Photography

Materials

Black and White, Silver Gelatin

Vintage Print Silver Gelatin Signed Photograph Friedl Dzubas New York Artist
By Fred McDarrah
Located in Surfside, FL
This is a photo of Friedl Dzubas (Abstract Expressionist) at Castelli Gallery, signed in ink and with photographer stamp verso and hand written title.. Over a 50-year span, McDarra...
Category

1950s American Modern Black and White Photography

Materials

Black and White, Silver Gelatin

Vintage Signed Silver Gelatin Photograph Paul Georges Studio Painting Photo
By Fred McDarrah
Located in Surfside, FL
Paul Georges poses with self portrait with wife - January 6th 1967 Photographer is Fred McDarrah Paul Georges with Painting Jan 6, 1967 Photographer is Fred McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, its off-off-Broadway actors, troubadours, politicians, agitators and social protests. Fred captured Jack Kerouac frolicking with women at a New Year’s bash in 1958, Andy Warhol adjusting a movie-camera lens in his silver-covered factory, and Bob Dylan offering a salute of recognition outside Sheridan Square near the Voice’s old office. Not just a social chronicler, McDarrah was a great photo-journalist. For years, McDarrah was the Voice's only photographer and, for decades, he ran the Voice’s photo department, where he helped train dozens of young photographers, including James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland...
Category

1960s American Modern Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Tibor de Nagy Portrait Photo NYC Gallery
By Fred McDarrah
Located in Surfside, FL
Tibor De Nagy - October 11 1960 Photographer is Fred McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, its off-off-Broadway actors, troubadours, politicians, agitators and social protests. Fred captured Jack Kerouac frolicking with women at a New Year’s bash in 1958, Andy Warhol adjusting a movie-camera lens in his silver-covered factory, and Bob Dylan offering a salute of recognition outside Sheridan Square near the Voice’s old office. Not just a social chronicler, McDarrah was a great photo-journalist. For years, McDarrah was the Voice's only photographer and, for decades, he ran the Voice’s photo department, where he helped train dozens of young photographers, including James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland...
Category

1960s American Modern Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Lawrence Lipton Photo Beatnik Beat Writer
By Fred McDarrah
Located in Surfside, FL
Lawrence Lipton May 17 1965 photographer Fred McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmod...
Category

1960s American Modern Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

You May Also Like

Hollywood
By Robert Frank
Located in New York, NY
It's hard to imagine an approach to photography that contrasted more with Robert Frank’s freewheeling style than Hollywood’s glamour shots of film stars in the 1950s. The stills depa...
Category

1950s Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Paris - Robert Frank (Black and White Photography)
By Robert Frank
Located in London, GB
Paris - Robert Frank (Black and White Photography) Signed and dated Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s 14 x 11 inches Frank’s photographs focused on elements of everyday life that ...
Category

1950s Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Robert Frank Untitled from the Americans, 1958, Beats Culture, Black & White
By Robert Frank
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Robert Frank Untitled from the Americans, 1958, Beats Culture, Black & White. Photogravure print, mid-century, France,wax tissue mounted on conservation matboard. Influenced by the work of Jakob Tuggener and Bill Brandt, as well as Walker Evans, Frank, a native of Switzerland, Frank was fascinated by documentary photography and the notion and image of "America." Frank secured a Guggenheim fellowship in 1955 to do something new and unconstrained by commercial diktats. "The Americans" was first published in 1958 in France, before its first run in the US in 1959. The photographs were shocking and notable for their distanced view of both high and low strata of American society, creating a complicated portrait of a period that was, then and now, considered to be a skeptical portrait of post-WWII American values but also deeply empathetic and profoundly evocative of ubiquitous loneliness. Frank found a tension in the gloss of American culture and wealth over race and class differences, which gave his photographs a clear contrast to those of most contemporary American photojournalists, as did his use of unusual focus, low lighting and cropping that deviated from accepted photographic techniques. Shortly before the book was published in France, Frank returned to the US (1957) and met Jack Kerouac on the sidewalk outside a party. They started chatting. Frank showed him some of his photographs. Kerouac immediately told Frank "Sure, I can write something about these pictures." Kerouac would write the introduction to the American edition of the book, published two years later. Sociologist Howard S...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Photography

Materials

Paper

Robert Frank The Americans (1968 MoMa edition)
By Robert Frank
Located in Brooklyn, NY
1968 MoMa edition of Robert Frank The Americans: Cover: Fair overall vintage condition: minor creasing & age related wear. Interior: Good overall vintage condition. Bibliographic ...
Category

Vintage 1960s Books

Materials

Paper

Thoughtful Al (1974) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
Located in London, GB
Thoughtful Al (1974) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print (Photo by Steve Wood) 25th March 1974: American actor Al Pacino in London. After making his name in The...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Black and White, Silver Gelatin

Important American Social Documentary Photograph Milton Rogovin Rare Original 60
By Milton Rogovin
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original gelatin silver print by American social documentary photographer Milton Rogovin depicting a resident of Buffalo's East Side in the early 1960's. This work is hand signed...
Category

1960s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin