Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/13
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Don Dory wrote:
"Robert Frank "The Americans" Risking a flaming, it's as if he was
possessed, forced to produce some of the best photography of the 50's.
Challenging America to rethink itself. "
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I graduated from college in 1960, so I am very much a product of the
50s. I do not find the America of good-hearted people I knew in "The
Americans." Frank's book is the work of an European who did not
understand America or Americans, who had the basic European's contempt
for our uncultured ways, and who could not reconcile the sprawl and
diversity of this country with his button-downed Swiss background. On
some levels "The Americans" may be a great piece of work. Undeniably, it
has been seminal in its effects and undoubtedly did cause some americans
to think differently about their country. Which is unfortunate, because
the book is essentially a lie about America.
As is Avedon's book "In the American West."
Don Dory also wrote:
"Avedon's "In the American West" for showing me how much can be revealed
about the photographer in a portrait."
Yes. What it reveals is that the photographer is dead as a doornail in
his soul. No photographer can find deadness everywhere he looks, as
Avedon does, unless he himself is dead inside.
Dave Jenkins
: "The contemplation of things as they are, without error or confusion,
without substitution or imposture, is in itself a nobler thing than a
whole harvest of invention."
. . .Francis Bacon