In
1956 with the assistance of a Guggenheim stipend,
the Swiss photographer Robert Frank travels through
America taking pictures for his book project "The
Americans". Although many Americans are annoyed
about his work, his project causes a great international
sensation and it is exhibited in leading museums all
over the world. This work, a composition of differently
emotionally charged photographs, produces an ornament
of the time, a pointing-the-way push of sentiments,
a pictorial document of the human beings. Nowadays
Robert Frank's work is a real classic of modern photography.
His pictures reflect the spirit of the times; regarding
subject matter as well as with regard to content,
the subjectively and emotionally dyed photos are a
melancholic monument of a nation.
After a period of almost fifty years, the march of
time went on, the world has changed and the cards
are shuffled anew. While America is suffering from
its own dreams and while Germany and France are administering
their bureaucracy, one of the smallest countries of
all managed "to sing themselves free" after
fifty years of tyranny and seven hundred years of
foreign rule. Doesn‘t such an outstanding country
deserve at least an equally passionate work as "The
Americans"?
For me it was the logical consequence. It was the
spirit of times that made me create the work "The
Estonians". History meets present day; David
meets Goliath, 280 million Americans, one million
Estonians! |
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