The researcher authored a book Postcards from the Road: Robert Frank's The Americans, (2014, University Chicago Press/Intellect), leading to a series of international exhibitions and conference papers, and two separately published extending chapters.
Frank’s Americans is one of the most significant books in photography’s history. Its origins, nature and significance were examined, through close visual, iconographic and contextual analysis, including extensive examination of previously overlooked interview and archival materials. The project also deployed action/experimental research, retracing the creative, conceptual and actual journeys Frank undertook across America. Thus Frank’s stated intention–“to explore a civilisation”– was extended. The research also examined the legacy of the Beat writers with whom Frank was allied, determining their enduing influence.
Postcards combines 96 new photographs with two texts each, all designed to be read as a dialogic gloss to Frank’s original book. The first text examines each photograph’s ‘moment’ and relates it to the central questions. The second is a detailed historical/analytical examination of Frank’s original image. These together present an innovative mixed visual/textual exposition.
The book has global reach and is often cited in published research. It is a UCP/Intellect ‘lead publication’ and was reviewed internationally, with ArtNews, calling it “one of this year’s best photobooks”. It has been accessioned into civic/university libraries internationally – the project has been listed as ‘essential reading’ by the National Gallery of Art Washington, the home of Frank’s archive. The book formed the core of a TRT Global TV broadcast, to 150 million people and was part of a US TV broadcast. The Hong Kong Government funded an exhibition and performance at the prestigious HK Jockey Club Gallery.
A chapter, “The Photographic Book as Power-Play”, in Photographic Powers, Aalto University Press, 2014, and an article, “An American Odyssey”, 2016, Take on Photography, New Dehli, launched at the Dhaka Art Fair and Art Basel, Hong Kong, extended the research.
This body of work takes as its centre Robert Frank's seminal 1959 book The Americans. After an intensive period of archival and textual research, informed by rare and previously overlooked primary interview material, the project re traced Frank’s American journeys, capturing new images that engage in dialogue with Frank's originals, across 50 years, image for image. Frank's mentor Walker Evans said in his 1958 introduction to Robert Frank’s book “For the thousandth time, it must be said that pictures speak for themselves, wordlessly, visually, or they fail”. Postcards from the Road explores this intention, creating dialogic images that engage with, expand and update aspects of Frank’s work. The images enter into further dialogue with the accompanying texts, which encompass provocations, extensions, and a new and acclaimed critical reading of Frank's inspirational originals.
Visual exposition of the kind deployed here enormously enhances and facilitates comprehension, engaging with the irony of text-only expositions of visual works. It challenges the dare-we-speak-its-name accusation that the heart of the academic project is the reduction of all things to text. Images that dialogue with Frank’s originals, supported by careful visual, textual and contextual exegesis, honour the intention of the original text considered.
The live contemporary revisiting of Frank’s sites and intentions, informed by preceding research, also allows an extension through time of Frank’s stated desire to photographically examine a civilization. It additionally facilitates an examination of the heritage, role and influence of the ‘Beat’ artists and writers, a loose collection of which Frank was a part. The research examines their legacy– the extent to which their noted careers and works left a trace.
Postcards from the Road was selected as a University of Chicago Press/Intellect ‘lead publication’.
The publisher writes
Robert Frank's images revolutionized postwar American photography. With their candid images of men and women from all classes and walks of life, the photographs presented a very different story than that portrayed by the wholesome caricature of mid century prosperity pervading American photography at the time. Although initially dismissed by his peers for his pioneering work, Frank was ultimately credited with changing the course of the art form, and his photography holds a secure status in the history of twentieth-century art. And he did all this without words. It seems appropriate then – and not a little overdue – that Jonathan Day has created a book that expounds, explores, and examines Frank’s work pictorially.
Taking Frank’s iconic images as his point of reference, Day shot new photographs that commented on the road and contemporary America. Here, these images are paired with critical commentary that details the aspects of the work that are visually expounded and explained in Day’s complementary images. A visual entryway to the photographs and themes of this iconic book in the history of photography, Postcards from the Road represents an innovative, carefully considered departure from standard photographic textbooks.
The book was called '“Seductive, complex and poetic: one of this years most exciting photobooks' by ArtNews New York, “Expansive, intelligent and eloquent” South China Morning Post and “a captivating and beautiful book of life on the road, which reminds us how fascinating it can be to view the world around us from an outsiders perspective” by IQ magazine.
Following on from the book a journal article for Aalto University Press, Helsinki discusses "The Photographic Book as Power-Play", using Frank's book as a principal example.
A further article “An American Odyssey” for journal Take on Photography looks at the genesis of the approach and its results. This was premiered at the Dhaka Art Fair and at Art Basle, Hong Kong.
A gallery and lecture tour was undertaken featuring images from the book, including an invited, HK government funded show at the prestigious Hong Kong Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, a leading arts venue in Hong Kong.
The author was invited to discuss The Americans and Frank's contribution after his death for TFT television to a global audience of 150 million people.
Images from the book were used on the cover of the UCP/Intellect catalogue and for a US album release.
Links
Book
Postcards from the Road: Robert Frank's The Americans, University of Chicago Press/Intellect, 2014, 978-1783201860
http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/P/bo18075216.html
Journal Chapter
“The Photographic Book as Power-Play”, Photographic Powers, Aalto University: Helsinki, Finland, pp 84-110
Journal Chapter
“A Pilgrimage in Search of Robert Frank’s The Americans”, Take on Photography, Take on Art: Delhi, India, pp 32-94
http://takeonartmagazine.com/article-details/205
Invited Solo Gallery Show at Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre funded by Hong Kong Creative Arts Development Fund
http://www.lumenvisum.org/site/exhibition/postcards-from-the-road-jonathan-day-2/
http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1772140/jonathan-day-postcards-road
http://www.jccac.org.hk/uploads/jccac/201504/20150430_194511_4UfNqaSWQM_f.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/events/871520199571210/
http://www.aicahk.org/eng/reviews.asp?id=326&pg=1
Television Feature on Frank and the Americans on TRT World Television
https://www.trtworld.com/video/nexus/remembering-robert-frank/5d7b33412fdee80017e7d283
Gallery tour
Gallery/festival tour presenting images and commentary from the work UK
http://www.jonathanday.net/music/1095/
http://www.jonathanday.net/music/shrewsbury-poetry-book-launch-for-postcards/
http://www.jonathanday.net/music/thai-tour-wunderbar-and-zoo/
Musical Album Cover from this project on album cover Crow Moon, Minnesota Fund for the Arts, Man in the Moon, Sparta Sound/Sacred Heart
featured in television broadcast on Minnesota PBS
“One of this year’s best photobooks” Artnews magazine, New York.
“Expansive, intelligent and eloquent” South China Morning Post.
“Bold and daring. The LA subway girl image and the essay with it on the Valley is dazzling”. “The unconventional components brought together in the book are risky, but they work, which makes the outcome all the better.” Neil Campbell, Professor of American Studies, University of Derby.
“a complex and poetic mixing of text and image in search of a certain American quality” Art News magazine New York.
“Like many others, I think The Americans is the most important book of photography published in the twentieth century. Day’s book – his photographs and text – add something unexpected and personal to the discourse. “I set out to search for the remnants of the America Frank pictured,” Day writes, “to see how 50 years have changed it – what has gone and what remains.” That is what he has done. Day is a knowledgeable commentator and long-time admirer of Frank’s The Americans. He offers valuable insights into Frank’s book and the time of its making. The unconventional components brought together in the book are risky, but they work, which makes the outcome all the better.” John O’Brian, Professor of Art History, University of British Columbia
