It is a unique photo book, hand-bound, and like a romantic love poem: Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank (1924-2019) created Mary's Book in Paris in 1949 for the artist Mary Lockspeiser, whom he had met shortly before his departure. They married the following year. With 74 small photographs, most of which were taken in the streets of Paris, and captions in English and French, the book has the feel of a poem. Frank experimented here with the arrangement of the images to create cross-references. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston is dedicating an exhibition to this unique work: Robert Frank: Mary's Book offers exciting insights into one of the first photo books by the artist, who later revolutionized the aesthetics of the medium with The Americans (1958). The presentation opens on December 21, 2024 and runs until June 22, 2025. An accompanying publication will reproduce Mary's Book in its entirety for the first time, making it easier to access Frank's early work in the future.
After the success of The Americans, which was initially heavily criticized in the USA for its unpatriotic features and inadequate technical quality, Frank ended his career as a photographer for the time being until 1972 and turned to filmmaking. His experimental and socially critical underground films, which mix fiction and documentary, are still known primarily to connoisseurs today. In both his cinematic and photographic work, Frank focuses on understatement: his aim was to capture the moment, without sensational effects or dramatic storytelling. Frank has received numerous awards, including the Hasselblad Foundation Award in 1996, which is considered the world's most important prize for photography.
