NoHo, New York
Brian Graham
Goin' Down the Road with Robert Frank
Zürcher GalleryZürcher Gallery is thrilled to show Brian Graham’s photographs of Robert Frank who carefully entwined his life and work, yet the man behind the camera always remained enigmatic. Goin’ Down the Road with Robert Frank is a rare insider’s look at Frank’s world by his longtime friend and assistant (both in and out of the darkroom) Brian Graham. Goin' Down the Road with Robert Frank by Brian Graham is a project derived from the eponymous book published in 2023 by Steidl. “This book expresses things about Robert that need to be shown. Nobody else was able to show this side of him. It’s because of their friendship ... It does not have this rock star feeling but it comes closer to what Robert was like.” —June Leaf Graham’s photos, made between 1979 and 2019, take us behind the scenes of Frank at work- on location for his 1987 film Candy Mountain, photographing Allen Ginsberg, inspecting contact sheets – and into his private life : laughing with his wife June Leaf, exploring a thrift shop, even fixing the roof of his Bleecker St studio. Candid, spontaneous, and framed by nostalgic notes (by Graham as well as novelist and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer) and an introduction by Ai WeiWei (another of Graham’ s friends from the Lower East Side in the 1980’s and 90’s), these images form an intimate and original portrait of Robert Frank, a central figure both in Graham’s photography and the history of the medium. Brian Graham was born in Glace Bay, Canada, in 1951. He earned his BA diploma from St Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, in 1973. He knew Robert Frank from the College of Arts and Design, Nova Scotia in 1979. He arrived in New York in 1981 at Robert Frank’s invitation to pursue photography and there assisted and printed for him for more than a decade. He also printed the archives of Allen Ginsberg (chronicling the Beat years), the Walker Evans Estate and Rosalind Fox Solomon. Graham has photographed throughout Africa, Europe and the Americas. Brian Graham said that "going on to places with Robert was like walking on a swinging suspension bridge."