Park and Sleep
c. 2012
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 16.2 × 23.9 cm (6 3/8 × 9 7/16 in.) sheet: 20.2 × 25.3 cm (7 15/16 × 9 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Jane P. Watkins
Accession Number
2015.186.1.16
Art Historical Context
Robert Frank’s “Park and Sleep,” a gelatin silver print from around 2012, captures the quiet poetry of everyday moments that defined the Swiss-born photographer’s long career. Best known for his seminal 1958 book *The Americans*, Frank consistently turned his lens toward ordinary scenes that reveal the texture of American life. This later work, made when the artist was in his late eighties, continues that interest in stillness and transience, inviting viewers to pause alongside its subject. The choice of gelatin silver print underscores Frank’s enduring commitment to traditional darkroom craf...
About the Artist
Robert Frank
Robert Frank (1924-2019) was a Swiss-American photographer and documentary filmmaker whose revolutionary approach to documentary photography fundamentally transformed the medium and influenced generations of artists. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, on November 9, 1924, to a middle-class Jewish family, Frank began his photographic apprenticeship in 1941, working with commercial photographers before im...