Jonathan Day: Postcards from the Road
Until May 28
Robert Frank's photographic road journey through America, , was published in 1959. For two years, Frank shot 500 rolls of film, then pared the final selection into an initially small-run black-and-white photo book with an introduction by Jack Kerouac, who described this classic as if Frank had "sucked a sad poem out of America onto film".
Frank's combination of seemingly casual and tightly framed images has influenced generations of photographers. British photographer Jonathan Day recently followed a comparable US road journey and this exhibition and accompanying book follow Frank's original photographs alongside Day's contemporary equivalent.
This exhibition, and particularly his book with a greater selection of images, recaptures these Frank moments. Day believes that is essentially both "poetry" and "prophecy".
Following in Frank's footsteps, he has a similar intention, and his colour photographs intelligently consider and extend Frank's original purpose alongside a literary analysis. Frank captured the US at a tumultuous time of social and political change. Day's contemporary America is often reflected through a musical moment, the songs of his own youth, as sung by Joni Mitchell, Gram Parsons and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
