About: Robert Frank
Don’t Blink — Robert Frank, documentary, now in theaters
Swiss-born photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank turned the art world upside-down with his radical, rough-hewn book of images, called The Americans, which he had shot on road trips across the U.S. in the mid-1950s. After rejections by most publishers, it was finally put out by Grove Press in 1959 and his since become a classic, turning Frank into a revered counterculture icon. Over the years Frank has also made experimental films, such as Pull My Daisy (1959), a collaboration with Beat legend Jack Kerouac, and Cocksucker Blues, an unreleased Rolling Stones tour film. He is responsible for the photography on the groundbreaking LP cover and sleeves of the Rolling Stones’ double album, Exile on Main Street.
Now Laura Israel, a film editor with whom he has frequently worked, has made a documentary about the reclusive, iconoclastic Frank and his fascinating worldview and imagery. It’s called Don’t Blink — Robert Frank, and is rolling out in theaters across the country. PROVOKR recommends watching the trailer for the film, above, to get a feel for it.
