Robert Frank
8 quotes
Biography
Robert Frank was a Swiss American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled The Americans, earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and nuanced outsider's view of American society.
"Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected."
"Black and white are the colors of photography. To me, they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. Most of my photographs are of people; they are seen simply, as through the eyes of the man in the street. There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. This kind of photography is realism. But realism is not enough—there has to be vision and the two together can make a good photograph. It is difficult to describe this thin line where matter ends and mind begins."
"People are my favourite subject because there are no two alike, so my work never becomes routine."
"You do your work as a photographer and everything becomes past. Words are more like thoughts the photographer's picture is always surrounded by a kind of romantic glamor - no matter what you do, and how you twist it."
"When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice."
"The eye should learn to listen before it looks."
"Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference"
"There are too many images, too many cameras now. We’re all being watched. It gets sillier and sillier. As if all action is meaningful. Nothing is really all that special. It’s just life. If all moments are recorded, then nothing is beautiful and maybe photography isn’t an art anymore. Maybe it never was"