Lot 3053
GODFREY FRANKEL
AMERICAN, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, D.C., 1912-1995
LEGENDS OF THE STREET PORTFOLIO, 1943-1947, PRINTED 1995
Nine gelatin silver prints, in clamshell portfolio with coliphon sheets
Ed. 3/9
1. Architectural Detail, New York City, 1947.
2. Menu Window, Lower Eastside, N.Y.C., 1947.
3. Water Play, Lower Eastside, N.Y.C., 1947.
4. News Kiosk, New York City,1947.
5. Canal Street at Third Avenue, N.Y.C., 1947.
6. Salon Barberia, N.Y.C., 1947
7. After Church, S.W. Washington, 1943.
8. Kids on Storefront Steps, S.W., Washington, 1943.
9. Dancing Boy on Golden Street, S.W., Washington, 1943.
Catalog note:
Mr. Frankel, a former newspaperman, was the nightclub columnist for the Washington Daily News during World War II when he began spending his afternoons and early evenings exploring the back alleys of downtown Washington, Capitol Hill and Southwest Washington by bicycle, carrying his camera with him. Those travels led him into an all-but-forgotten world of poor and crowded communities close to but virtually hidden from the broad avenues and monuments of the federal city. For three years, he returned again and again to the alley neighborhoods, recording on film the lives of the people who lived there, especially the games and activities of the children.
In its [Fall 1995] catalogue, the Smithsonian Press said Mr. Frankel's photographs "evoke a time when even the worst living conditions were alleviated by the extended families each neighborhood formed. . . . Pedaling his bicycle into the alleys, he waited patiently for each picture to compose itself. The results provide keen insight into not only the neighborhoods' abject poverty but also the unfettered imagination of children everywhere."
For 20 years until he retired in 1982, he was a program director for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, where his work included research and evaluation of programs and agencies funded by the institute. Throughout his professional career, he pursued photography as an avocation. His pictures were displayed at the National Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
But it was not until he retired from federal service that he took his wartime photographs of Washington alley neighborhoods out of storage and began showing them around. In 1992, they had their first full public showing at the Kathleen Ewing Gallery on Connecticut Avenue. Typically, they depicted such ordinary scenes as children sitting on the steps of a neighborhood market or running home just ahead of the early evening darkness, coattails flapping in the breeze.
The pictures showed Mr. Frankel to be a "shrewd and compassionate observer of life," said Amy Pastan, art and photography editor for the Smithsonian Press.
Source: The Washington Post
- Dimensions: Each sheet: 19 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. (50.2 x 40 cm.), Portfolio case: 21 x 17 x 0 1/2 in. (53.3 x 43.2 x 1.3 cm.)
- Medium: Nine gelatin silver prints, in clamshell portfolio with coliphon sheets
- Condition: For a detailed condition report please request more information.
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