Robert Frank & his car rented for him by Atlantic Center For Arts where we taught together three weeks with jazz drum genius Elvin Jones. We’d come to town New Smyrna Beach on errands, he showed me how to use his polaroid 195 that gives negative, but when we washed it in his plastic container of water, car-heat-cooked in Florida mid-day sun, the emulsion cracked, dissolved—this copy print from original is o.k. to catch his smile at my amateur focus, June 1984., 1984

Inscription

signed by artist, across bottom in black ink: Robert Frank & his car rented for him by Atlantic Center For / Arts where we taught together three weeks with jazz drum genius / Elvin Jones. We’d come to town New Smyrna Beach on errands, he / showed me how to use his polaroid 195 that gives negative, but / when we washed it in his plastic container of water, car-heat-cooked / in Florida mid-day sun, the emulsion cracked, dissolved—this copy / print from original is o.k. to catch his smile at my amateur focus, / June 1984. Allen Ginsberg; lower center of mat typed on white paper: Robert Frank et la voiture louée pour lui par l’Atlantic Center for Arts où nous avons enseigné ensemble avec le génie de la batterie jazz Elvin Jones. Nous étions / descendus en ville—New Smyrna Beach—pour faire des courses, il m’a montré comment me servir de son Polaroïd 195 qui sort le négatif, mais quand nous l’avons plongé / dans son bidon en plastique d’eau cuite dans la chaleur de la voiture au soleil de midi en Floride, l’emulsion d’est fendillée, dissolute—ce tirage, une copie de l’original est / assez bien pour saisir son sourire à mon objectif d’amateur, juin 1984.; on verso, by unknown hand, lower center in graphite: GD-AG-44; by unknown hand, lower left of mat circled in graphite: #23; lower center in graphite: Image #8792 GD-AG-44; lower right: GDC-740

Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Gary and Ellen Davis, Greenwich, CT; gift to NGA, 2012.

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