Robert Frank: Mary's Book

這本藝術家書籍《瑪莉之書》（Mary’s Book）與情書，是羅伯特・法蘭克為他的第一任妻子所創作，完美展現了他日後定義其傳奇攝影生涯的詩性與精湛手法。

被愛德華・史泰欽（Edward Steichen）譽為「拿著相機的詩人」，羅伯特・法蘭克（1924–2019）是戰後眾多前往巴黎尋求創作自由的藝術家之一。1949 年旅居巴黎期間，他創作了其作品生涯中一部極為關鍵、卻長期鮮為人知的攝影書——這是一本為當時的女友、藝術家瑪麗・法蘭克（原姓洛克斯派瑟）所製作的私人影像情書。

在《Mary’s Book》中，法蘭克以詩意、敏銳且充滿探問精神的視角，記錄他在巴黎的生活點滴；同時，他也首次嘗試將文字與影像並置、交織，進行形式上的實驗。這件獨一無二的作品，不僅是法蘭克重要的「造書」練習，也清楚展現他藝術視野的成熟——這條創作路徑最終引領他完成二十世紀最具影響力的攝影書之一：《美國人》（The Americans, 1958）。

本書首次完整重現這封影像情書，並收錄多位重量級學者的深度評論文章。這本布面精裝仿真版本，保留了法蘭克親筆寫下的「this is for you」題字，細膩再現原作中彼此嵌套、未裝訂的頁面結構，頁頁可見手寫文字與手工裁切的照片。讀者得以透過羅伯特・法蘭克的視覺節奏與影像和聲，重新走入 1940 年代末期的巴黎。

Frank's artist's book and love letter for his first wife exemplifies the poetic, virtuosic approach to photobooks that would come to define his storied career

Called "a poet with a camera" by Edward Steichen, Robert Frank (1924-2019) was one of many artists who searched for creative freedom in postwar Paris. It was while he was living in the city in 1949 that Frank produced a seminal volume in his oeuvre: a rare, personal photobook made for his then-girlfriend, artist Mary Frank (née Lockspeiser). In Mary's Book, the photographer chronicled his time in the city with his poetic, insightful and inquisitive eye, and experimented for the first time with combining text and image. This singular object proved an important bookmaking exercise for Frank, and remains as evidence of his maturing artistic vision, which led to one of the most influential photobooks of the 20th century, The Americans (1958).
Mary's Book reproduces this love letter in full for the first time, accompanied by insightful essays from leading scholars. This facsimile clothbound volume, inscribed "this is for you" in Frank's handwriting, re-creates the series of unbound pages nestled within one another, filled with handwritten notes and hand-cut prints. Readers can experience the Paris of the late 1940s through the visual harmonies of Robert Frank.