Robert Frank: Books and Films, 1947–2019

Robert Frank: Books and Films, 1947–2019 explores Robert Frank’s rich bookmaking history with Steidl. Including spreads from and explanatory texts on the more than 30 books Frank published with Steidl, along with interviews, essays and documentary photos, Books and Films is a tribute to Frank’s diverse and influential bookmaking practice.

Gerhard Steidl began working with Robert Frank in 1989, when Swiss publisher Walter Keller asked him to print Frank’s The Lines of My Hand for his imprint Scalo: “You’ll both get along well on press,” Keller had said. And so Robert Frank traveled to Steidl at Düstere Strasse 4 in Göttingen for the first of many times, to be on press and sign off each printed sheet. After Scalo closed its doors in 2004, Steidl started to publish as well as print Frank’s books, beginning a long-term working friendship that encompassed every aspect of Frank’s creativity—from reprints of his classic and some lesser-known books (The Americans, Zero Mostel Reads a Book), the publication of previously unseen projects (Seven Stories), newly conceived volumes (Tal Uf Tal Ab, Good Days Quiet), as well as his complete films on DVD (Film Works). In Gerhard Steidl’s words: “Our aim has been to ensure the legacy of this original and seminal artist and that his work will be available and accessible for years to come—all in a form and to a standard that Robert personally oversaw.”

The book has always been more important to me than selling my photographs. The book is what ensures your work will live longer, longer than any other means… Robert Frank

Robert Frank was born in Zurich in 1924 and immigrated to the United States in 1947. He is best known for his seminal book The Americans, first published in English in 1959, which gave rise to a distinctly new form of the photobook, and his experimental film Pull My Daisy (1959). Frank’s other important projects include the books Black White and Things (1954), The Lines of My Hand (1972) and the film Cocksucker Blues for the Rolling Stones (1972). Frank died on 9 September 2019 at the age of 94.