Robert Frank: The Lines of My Hand
Robert Frank: The Lines of My Hand
After The Americans, The Lines of My Hand is arguably Robert Frank’s most important book and without doubt the publication that established his autobiographical, sometimes confessional, approach to bookmaking.
The book was originally published by Yugensha in Tokyo in 1972, beautifully designed and printed; the first of four books designed by Kohei Sugiura and published by Kazuhiko Motomura under the Yugensha imprint.
The lushest of Frank’s books and one of the most sought after deluxe editions in the photobook canon.
Lustrum Press Edition, 1972
This new Steidl edition, made in close collaboration with Robert Frank, follows and updates the first US edition by Lustrum Press of 1972, will be published on February 27.
The Lines of My Hand is structured chronologically and presents selections from every stage of Frank’s work until 1972 from early photos in Switzerland in 1945-46, to images of his travels in Peru, Paris, Valencia, London and Wales, and to contact sheets from his 1955-56 journey through the US that resulted in The Americans and made him famous.
Here too are intimate photos of Frank’s young family, later photo-collages and stills from films including Pull My Daisy (1959) and About Me: A Musical (1971).
This structure itself mirrors the rhythm of Frank’s life but it is his short personal texts, like diary entries, that fully bring his voice into the book.
In its original combination of text and image, its fearless self-reflection, and its insistence on photography and film as equal though different aspects of the artist’s visual language, The Lines of My Hand has become an inspiration for many photographers – not least Robert Frank himself, who continues and expands this approach in the visual diaries he makes today
2019 Steidl Edition
This retrospective study of the work and life of Robert Frank demonstrates the artistry, innovations, and magnificent images of the distinguished photographer in more than 350 photographs.
About Robert Frank:
Robert Frank is 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.
Critic Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian in 2014, said The Americans “changed the nature of photography, what it could say and how it could say it; it remains perhaps the most influential photography book of the 20th century.”
More info about book on: https://steidl.de/
Hardcover: 116 pages
Publisher: Steidl (February 27, 2018)
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 9 x 11.8 inches
Weight: 1.7 pounds
Robert Frank is 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.
Critic Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian in 2014, said The Americans “changed the nature of photography, what it could say and how it could say it; it remains perhaps the most influential photography book of the 20th century.”
