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Awakening the Eye
Robert Frank's American Cinema
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Book Presentation:
Until now, celebrated photographer Robert Frank’s daring and unconventional work as a filmmaker has not been awarded the critical notice it deserves. In this timely volume, George Kouvaros surveys Frank’s films and videos and places them in the larger context of experimentation in American art and literature since World War II.
Born in 1924, Frank emigrated from Switzerland to the United States in 1947 and quickly made his mark as a photojournalist. A 1955 Guggenheim Foundation fellowship allowed him to travel across the country, photographing aspects of American life that had previously received little attention. The resulting book, The Americans, with an Introduction by Jack Kerouac, is generally considered a landmark in the history of postwar photography. During the same period, Frank befriended other artists and writers, among them Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and Gregory Corso, all of whom are featured in his first film, Pull My Daisy, which is narrated by Kerouac. This film set the terms for a new era of experimental filmmaking.
By examining Frank’s films and videos, including Pull My Daisy, Me and My Brother, and Cocksucker Blues, in the framework of his more widely recognized photographic achievements, Kouvaros develops a model of cross-media history in which photography, film, and video are complicit in the search for fresh forms of visual expression. Awakening the Eye is an insightful, compelling, and, at times, moving account of Frank’s determination to forge a personal connection between the circumstances of his life and the media in which he works.
About the Author:
George Kouvaros is senior lecturer in the School of Theatre, Film, and Dance at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Press Reviews:
"While showing great assurance in talking about Robert Frank’s still photography, George Kouvaros not only gives the films due consideration on their own terms, but also in the way they reflected Frank’s overall art."—Stephen Brooke, York University
See the publisher website: University of Minnesota Press
See the complete filmography of Robert Frank on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
Famous Faces Yet Not Themselves (2010)
The Misfits and Icons of Postwar America
Subject: One Film > The Misfits
Where Does It Happen (2004)
John Cassavetes and Cinema at the Breaking Point
Subject: Director > John Cassavetes
> On a related topic:
Hollis Frampton (2023)
Navigating the Infinite Cinema
by Michael Zryd
Subject: Director > Hollis Frampton
Exovede in the Darkroom (2023)
The Films of Rhayne Vermette
Dir. Stephen Broomer and Irene Bindi
Subject: Director > Rhayne Vermette
William Greaves (2021)
Filmmaking as Mission
Dir. Scott MacDonald and Jacqueline Najuma Stewart
Subject: Director > William Greaves
The Films of Bill Morrison (2018)
Aesthetics of the Archive
Dir. Bernd Herzogenrath
Subject: Director > Bill Morrison
At Peter's / Chez Peter (2017)
by Christian Lebrat
(in French and English)
Subject: Director > Peter Kubelka
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