Lot 80 N

Robert Frank was the first European to receive a scholarship from the Guggenheim Foundation to devote himself to a great photographic theme for a year: The portrait of an entire nation. Prior to him, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, among others, had received this scholarship, but Frank was the first to present the results of his work in a photo book. In 1955, equipped with a Leica and a Rolleiflex, he started his journey across the US. Of the approx. 27,000 shots of this period, he initially selected some 1,000 photographs as the basis for his work in the following year, to eventually select 83 photographs, placing them in a narrative context similar to a road story. In addition to the iconic character of the individual photographs, the fact that Jack Kerouac, cult author of the Beat generation and friend of Robert Frank, wrote an introductory text certainly contributed to the legendary fame of the book. The recording 'elevator - Miami Beach' bears witness to the basic mood in Frank's photographs, which Jack Kerouac describes as "The humor, the sadness, the EVERYTHING-ness and the American-ness of these pictures!" (Jack Kerouac, Introduction, in: Robert Frank. The Americans, New York 1959, n.pag.). In many of his photographs, Frank focused on elementary subjects such as the contrast between rich and poor, which is expressed in this photograph in the counterpart of the two female protagonists - the wealthy lady with a fur cape and the melancholic, simply dressed 'elevator girl'. Frank's view is by no means impartial and Jack Kerouac was obviously also touched by the sad look of the girl: 'And I say: That little ole lonely elevator girl, looking up sighing in an elevator full of blurred demons, what's her name & address?' (Jack Kerouac, Introduction, in: ibid, n.pag.).