Volume 38, Number 4: Photography

December 2019
#152

Border Crossings Special Issue “Remembering Robert Frank”

Border Crossings has just published a Special Issue on Photography featuring a lengthy section in tribute to Robert Frank.

It would not be possible to suitably reflect Robert Frank’s significant role in contemporary photography: he caused us to look and look again—closely. So we have looked closely. Our tribute to this legendary photographer is rooted in the personal, taking the form of a memoir by Paul Roth who is the Director of the Ryerson Image Centre in Toronto; an essay on a long-standing friendship by Border Crossings’ Editor Meeka Walsh and a portfolio of letters sent by Robert Frank to a friend, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan—the writer Chester Pelkey and introduced by Border Crossings’ Senior Contributing Editor, Robert Enright. All the remembrances are accompanied by Robert Frank’s images.

The issue also includes two fine interviews—one with the young Vancouver-based Inuk filmmaker, Lindsay McIntyre, and the other with award-winning Montreal photographer Benoit Aquin.

For all of us, fascinated by the world going on without us—that is, in our absence—a magical portfolio by Quebec photographer Éliane Excoffier revealing the nightlife of forest animals.

There is a rich presentation of articles, all photo-based: noted critic and curator Peggy Gale on the unique work of George Steeves, Daniel Baird on the complicated issues of photography’s truthfullness, Anna Kovler’s piece, with its highly descriptive title “Into Another Skin: Women and Self-Portraiture” and James Campbell engaging the spectral gravity of objects.

The review section, Crossovers, is filled with topics addressing photography and more. Here are some: Liz Magor, Brendan Fernandes, Vikky Alexander, Brian Jungen, Jagdeep Raina, Karen Asher… And we open this issue with the work of two young artists: Luther Konadu and his photographs and painter Alex Bierk and his intimate transcription of photographs to paint.

Always, there is more…

Cover: Robert Frank, good days Quiet, 2019, © Robert Frank, image and text. © Steidl Publishers for this edition. Photography courtesy Pace/ MacGill Gallery, New York.

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Table of Contents

  • Bordernotes

  • Dreaming Robert Frank, Dreaming Walter Benjamin Meeka Walsh
  • Borderviews

  • Objective Portraiture
  • Recovery Artist
  • Bordercolumn

  • Words About Pictures ‘Aperture Conversations: 1985 to the Present’ Edited by Melissa Harris and Michael Famighetti Robert Enright
  • Interviews

  • The Hand Made’s Tale An Interview with Lindsay McIntyre Robert Enright
  • Luminous Being An Interview with Benoit Aquin Robert Enright
  • Memoir

  • Swimming Upstream Robert Frank, 1924–2019 Paul Roth
  • Essay

  • Fragments of the Autobiographical A Friendship with Robert Frank Meeka Walsh
  • Articles

  • Conflicted Photography Daniel Baird
  • Into Another Skin Anna Kovler
  • George Steeves: Be Warned Peggy Gale
  • The Spectral Gravity of Objects Thoughts on Photographs and the Artifactual James D. Campbell
  • Portfolios

  • Keep Giving Signs Robert Frank’s Letters to Chester Pelkey Robert Enright
  • Image Hunter The Night Photographs of Éliane Excoffier Robert Enright
  • Crossovers

  • Karen Asher Monika Vrečar
  • Liz Magor Nancy Tousley
  • Bonavista Biennale Eva Crocker
  • “ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ // among all these tundras” Maeve Hanna
  • Brian Jungen Earl Miller
  • Brendan Fernandes Nadja Pelkey
  • Dave Heath Joanne Stober
  • Francis Alÿs Jacques Talbot
  • William Kentridge Teresa Retzer
  • Jagdeep Raina Georgia Phillips-Amos
  • Vikky Alexander Robin Laurence
  • “Szilasi & Szilasi” James D. Campbell
  • “People Among the People: The Public Art of Susan Point” Robin Laurence