Friday 3 December 2004, 10.30–17.30
What We Think of The Americans
‘Robert Frank, Swiss, unobtrusive, nice, with that little camera that he raises and snaps with one hand he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world.' – Jack Kerouac
Was The Americans the most influential book of photographs published in the last fifty years? Granted a Guggenheim fellowship, Robert Frank set out to document everyday America. The resulting pictures broke all conventions of photography and showed the artist’s clear ambivalence towards his adopted country. Seen by many as an attack on the American way of life, the book nonetheless spawned droves of young photographers to drive second hand cars across the United States, exposing rolls of film at gas stations and roadside bars.
This event brings together Robert Delpire, original publisher of The Americans; Martin Gasser, curator at the Swiss Foundation for Photography; David Brittain, former editor of Creative Camera; Liz Jobey associate editor of Granta magazine; and artists Susan Meiselas and Stephen Shore, to discuss the enduring impact of Frank's magnum opus.
The symposium is followed by a screening of Robert Frank's 1972 film Cocksucker Blues. Tickets for the film must be separately purchased.
Supported by Presence Switzerland
This event is 
Tate Modern
Starr Auditorium
£15 (£10 concessions), booking recommended
Price includes entry to the exhibition
£15 (£10 concessions), booking recommended
Price includes entry to the exhibition
Proposed schedule. Please note that all timings and details are subject to change:
10.30 Introduction
Vicente Todoli, Director of Tate Modern and Curator of Robert Frank: Storylines
10.40–12.30 1st Session: The Americans in its Time
Robert Delpire, Martin Gasser, David Brittain, introduced and chaired by David Campany
10.45 Robert Delpireis a world renowned editor, curator, galleryist, and film and television director. He was the original publisher of The Americans in 1958.
11.30 Martin Gasser is Curator at the Swiss Foundation for Photography. He was a contributor to Moving Out, the major catalogue that accompanied the National Gallery of Art Washington’s 1994 retrospective of Frank’s work.
12.00 David Brittain is Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design. He was editor of Creative Camera, then DPICT between 1991 and 2001 and is editor of Creative Camera: 30 Years of Writing (Manchester University Press, 2000).
12.30–13.15 Discussion
Chaired by David Campany, Reader in Photography at the University of Westminster and author of Art and Photography (Phaidon 2003).
13.15–15.00 Lunch break.
All symposium tickets valid in Robert Frank exhibition.
15.00–16.45 2nd Session: The Legacy of the Americans
Susan Meiselas, Stephen Shore, Liz Jobey, introduced and chaired by Charlotte Cotton
15.10 Stephen Shore has become known as a pioneer of colour photography. His books include Uncommon Places; The Gardens at Giverny; Stephen Shore: Luzzara; The Velvet Years, Andy Warhol’s Factory, 1965-1967; Stephen Shore: Photographs, 1973-1993; American Surfaces, 1972; and The Nature of Photographs, 1998. Since 1982 he has been the chairman of the photography programme at Bard College where he is the Susan Weber Soros Professor in the Arts.
15.50 Susan Meiselas was one of the first women members of Magnum. Her books, which she both wrote and photographed, include Nicaragua, Carnival Strippers, and Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History.
16.30 Response by Liz Jobey, associate editor of Granta magazine. She has been an editor and writer at The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Sunday Times, The Observer and Vogue, and is author of The End of Innocence: Photographs from the Decades That Defined Pop: The 1950s to the 1970s (Scalo 1997) and A Photographic History of the 20th Century (Pan MacMillan 2002)
16.45 – 17.30 Discussion
Chaired by Charlotte Cotton, who is Senior Programmer at The Photographers’ Gallery and author of Contemporary Photography (Thames and Hudson 2004)
This event is related to the Robert Frank: Storylines exhibition
