Father Photographer: 1890-1976

First edition of Father Photographer: 1890-1976 by Henry Frank edited by Robert Frank (2009)

First impression 

Small format hardback in fine condition 

Some very slight wear to extremities of boards 

Some very slight toning to extremities of pages 

Otherwise, pages clean, binding firm 

About

Robert Frank’s father, Henry, was both the proprietor of a bicycle shop in Zurich, and a keen amateur photographer. Father – Photographer makes public for the first time a selection of Henry Frank’s photographs including landscapes, family portraits, still-lifes and cityscapes. When Robert Frank immigrated to the United States in 1947, a wooden box containing his father’s stereophotographs was one of the few objects he brought with him. In 2008 that box and the fragile photographic glass plates within it were hand-escorted to Steidl in Göttingen, where they were scanned in tri-tone in preparation for this book. Designed by Robert Frank, Father – Photographer reveals Henry Frank to be both a talented photographer and a keen traveller. His pictures include snow-capped Alps and lakes in Switzerland, views of Venice, Pisa and Florence, and depictions of his family and friends including the young Robert. Henry Frank also reveals a passion for modern means of transport in images of aeroplanes, ships, hot-air balloons, and a car fair at the Grand Palais in Paris. Father – Photographer is a revelation of the unknown photographer Henry Frank, a historical photographic document of the early twentieth century, as well as a new chapter in Robert Frank’s ongoing bookmaking.