美国国家公共电台 NPR Influential Documentary Photographer Robert Frank Dies At 94

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Robert Frank changed the way we see photography, and that photography changed the way we see the world around us. His 1959 book "The Americans" showed a country at odds¹ with the optimistic views of prosperity that characterized American photography at the time. Robert Frank died yesterday in Nova Scotia, where he had a home. He was 94 years old. NPR's Tom Cole has this appreciation².

TOM COLE, BYLINE³: Robert Frank's Leica camera captured gay men in New York, factory workers in Detroit and a segregated⁴ trolley⁵ in New Orleans - sour and defiant⁶ white faces in front and the anguished⁷ face of a black man in back. The book was savaged⁸. Mainstream⁹ critics called Frank sloppy¹⁰ and joyless, as Frank told NPR in 1994.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

ROBERT FRANK: The Museum of Modern Art wouldn't even sell the book, you know? I mean, certain things one doesn't forget so easy. But the younger people caught on.

COLE: Eventually, the black-and-white photographs in "The Americans" became canon, inspiring legions of photographers. One of them was Joel Meyerowitz. In an interview for the same 1994 NPR story, Meyerowitz, who is an acclaimed¹¹ photographer in his own right, remembered watching Frank at work early on.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

JOEL MEYEROWITZ: And it was such an unbelievable and powerful experience watching him twisting, turning, bobbing, weaving. And every time I heard his Leica go click, I would see the moment freeze in front of Robert.

COLE: Robert Frank arrived in New York from Switzerland in 1947, and even then, his pictures were seen as too rough, spontaneous, personal. He was turned down by the respected photo agency Magnum, but Frank knew what he wanted to do, and he had the training to back up his vision, as the late poet Allen Ginsberg pointed¹² out in 1994.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ALLEN GINSBERG: Robert has this fantastic education since he was 17 as an apprentice¹³ to an industrial photographer, so he knows the chemicals of it. He knows how to light a factory with magnesium¹⁴ flares¹⁵. So he's got this fantastic discipline, which he applies to being able to be spontaneous.

COLE: Ginsberg was a friend and photography student of Frank's. He also starred in Frank's first film, the 1959 "Pull My Daisy." It was based on part of an unproduced play by Jack¹⁶ Kerouac and featured the author as narrator.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JACK KEROUAC: Yes, it's early, late or middle Friday evening in the universe. Oh, the sounds of time are pouring through the window and the key.

COLE: "Pull My Daisy" was Robert Frank's reaction to a restlessness he felt around still photography, as he told NPR in 1988.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

FRANK: In still photography, you have to come up with one good picture, maybe two or three. But that's only three frames. There's no rhythm. Still photography isn't music. Film is really, in a way, based on a rhythm like music.

COLE: Yet Frank's films share a lot with his photographs. They're personal. They evoke¹⁷ emotions as much as they tell stories. They're like home movies, and he made more than 20 of them before returning to photography. By then, he was a legend, acknowledged as an inspiration by such noted¹⁸ artists as Ed Ruscha, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand. What comes through in all of Frank's work is his ability to catch a moment, and that came from truly looking.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

FRANK: Like a boxer¹⁹ trains for a fight, a photographer, by walking in the streets and watching and taking pictures and coming home and going out the next day - same thing again - taking pictures. It doesn't matter how many he takes or if he takes any at all. It gets you prepared to know what you should take pictures of.

COLE: Frank seemed to capture how he saw his work in this voice-over narration²⁰ to the 1985 video he called "Home Improvements."

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "HOME IMPROVEMENTS")

FRANK: I'm always looking outside, trying to look inside, trying to tell something that's true, but maybe nothing is really true except what's out there. And what's out there is always different.

COLE: Robert Frank saw that, and we're lucky he shared what he saw.

Tom Cole, NPR News.

1 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

2 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

5 trolley   

n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车

参考例句：

• The waiter had brought the sweet trolley.侍者已经推来了甜食推车。
• In a library,books are moved on a trolley.在图书馆，书籍是放在台车上搬动的。

6 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

7 anguished   

adj.极其痛苦的v.使极度痛苦(anguish的过去式)

参考例句：

• Desmond eyed her anguished face with sympathy. 看着她痛苦的脸，德斯蒙德觉得理解。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The loss of her husband anguished her deeply. 她丈夫的死亡使她悲痛万分。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

8 savaged   

（动物）凶狠地攻击（或伤害）( savage的过去式和过去分词 )； 残害； 猛烈批评； 激烈抨击

参考例句：

• The horse threw its rider to the ground and savaged him. 那马将骑马者摔在地上，乱踢他。
• The drink had savaged him. 酒使他变得野蛮。

9 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

10 sloppy   

adj.邋遢的，不整洁的

参考例句：

• If you do such sloppy work again,I promise I'll fail you.要是下次作业你再马马虎虎，我话说在头里，可要给你打不及格了。
• Mother constantly picked at him for being sloppy.母亲不断地批评他懒散。

11 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

12 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

13 apprentice   

n.学徒，徒弟

参考例句：

• My son is an apprentice in a furniture maker's workshop.我的儿子在一家家具厂做学徒。
• The apprentice is not yet out of his time.这徒工还没有出徒。

14 magnesium   

n.镁

参考例句：

• Magnesium is the nutrient element in plant growth.镁是植物生长的营养要素。
• The water contains high amounts of magnesium.这水含有大量的镁。

15 flares   

n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开

参考例句：

• The side of a ship flares from the keel to the deck. 船舷从龙骨向甲板外倾。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He's got a fiery temper and flares up at the slightest provocation. 他是火爆性子，一点就着。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

16 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

17 evoke   

vt.唤起，引起，使人想起

参考例句：

• These images are likely to evoke a strong response in the viewer.这些图像可能会在观众中产生强烈反响。
• Her only resource was the sympathy she could evoke.她以凭借的唯一力量就是她能从人们心底里激起的同情。

18 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

19 boxer   

n.制箱者，拳击手

参考例句：

• The boxer gave his opponent a punch on the nose.这个拳击手朝他对手的鼻子上猛击一拳。
• He moved lightly on his toes like a boxer.他像拳击手一样踮着脚轻盈移动。

20 narration   

n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体

参考例句：

• The richness of his novel comes from his narration of it.他小说的丰富多采得益于他的叙述。
• Narration should become a basic approach to preschool education.叙事应是幼儿教育的基本途径。