Whether a Jukebox is Sadder Than a Coffin

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"Funeral - St. Helena, South Carolina," 1955.
Photograph by Robert Frank, from The Americans

I have posted several times about Robert Frank, so I won't go on and on about him now, other than to say that for people who are interested in photography, Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans – the new retrospective that went up this week at the Met – is a must-see. By that I mean: the Met is pay-what-you-wish, and I wish to shell out $300 for a plane ticket to New York and go directly to the Met to see it. You might do the same – or if not, I recommend picking up the recent re-release of The Americans, available for $22 and change from Amazon, or wherever you buy your books. Jack Kerouac wrote the introduction ("After seeing these pictures you end up finally not knowing whether a jukebox is sadder than a coffin.")

Photograph by Robert Frank, from The Americans

Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans is at The Met through January 3, 2010. Visit metmuseum.org for more info. Also, I should say, this is not the first such exhibition – there's a similar one up through October 19 at MOCA in LA – but I guess I retain that NYC conceit that says it will be the best.

See also:
The New York Times: America, Captured in a Flash
The New Yorker: Road Show
(Both with slides.)