Robert Frank, photographer of The Americans, dies at 94

(Image credit: Kathy Willens/AP)

published 10 September 2019

Robert Frank, a documentary photographer who captured life in his book The Americans, has died at 94.

Frank was born in Switzerland before heading to New York at age 23 to pursue an artistic career. He died Monday in Inverness, Nova Scotia, The New York Times reported via Peter MacGill of the Pace/MacGill Gallery.

Frank's best-known work is The Americans, a collection of black and white snapshots he captured on road trips across the country. They were thought to be "an indictment of American society" and its "drive for conformity" that Frank "detested," the Times writes. First published as a book in France and then as a caption-free collection in its namesake country, The Americans encompassed everything from "segregation south of the Mason-Dixon line" to "alienation on the assembly line," a 2008 Vanity Fair profile of Frank wrote.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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