The Stones sued to keep public from seeing Frank's 1972 film Cocksucker Blues
Robert Frank, who published one of the most important books of photography of the 20th century and later directed films including a controversial documentary about the Rolling Stones, has died at the age of 94.
His death on Monday at a hospital in Nova Scotia, where Frank kept a summer home, was confirmed by Peter MacGill, a New York-based gallerist who represented the artist's work. Frank's primary residence was in Manhattan. Robert is from the Beat generation... His films and his photographs have a certain feeling and emotion, and like a rawness to them.
In 1958 Frank came out with The Americans, a collection of 83 photographs selected from more than 25,000 he had taken while traveling the country on a Guggenheim Fellowship. His outsider's perspective - he had emigrated from Switzerland in his early 20s - brought into focus something essential about American culture, especially its pervasive racial inequality. The book wasn't well received on publication but came to be recognized by critics and photographers as one of the most important and influential works of the century.
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AuthorMatthew Carey is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. His work has appeared on Deadline.com, CNN, CNN.com, TheWrap.com, NBCNews.com and in Documentary magazine. |