Henry Frank: Father Photographer, 1890–1976

Robert Franks 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 Franks photographs including landscapes, family portraits, still‑lifes and cityscapes. When Robert Frank immigrated to the United States in 1947, a wooden box containing his fathers 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 Franks ongoing bookmaking.