Catalogue of the exhibition at the Tate Modern and the Museu d´Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). Barcelona, 8 February - 11 April 2005. Robert Frank (b. 1924) is one of the most influential of the post-war photographers. Emigrating to the United States in 1947, he began working in fashion and the advertising industry for magazines like Life, Fortune and The New York Times. A year later he left to travel through South America and Europe, shooting in Peru, Bolivia, London, Wales and France. In 1955 he became the first European photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship. He used it to take a road-trip across the States, shooting scenes of ordinary American life, deliberately retaining the imperfections of the printing process in stark contrast to the perfectionism of contemporaries like Ansel Adams and Minor White. The resulting book, The Americans, radically changed the language of photography, gave rise to a new distinct art form in the photo-book and questioned the authority of the photograph as document. Developed in close collaboration with the artist, Robert Frank is the most comprehensive survey of a career that has continued to develop and break new ground since the 1950s. Photographs from locations including Peru, London, Wales, Detroit and Chicago, Coney Island and Birmingham will be combined with Polaroids, contact sheets from The Americans, ephemera and a selection of films. Many of the images have never previously been published.