NEW YORK
Brian Graham
Goin’ Down the Road with Robert Frank
November 2 - December 23, 2024
At Zürcher Gallery, New York
Zürcher Gallery, 33 Bleecker St 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, 7 Bleecker St, NYC.
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 1980s and 90s), 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.”
List of exhibitions :
1999 Nova Scotia, Galerie Argus fotokunst, Berlin
2002 Reanimating Matter, Raoul Hague’s sculptures and Robert Frank’s photographs Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz
2002 Life, StFX Art Gallery, Antigonish, Nova Scotia
2005 Absurdity is King – Twilight of the Beats, Casa Fernando Pessoa, Lisbon
2006 Twilight of the Beats – Allen Ginsberg & Co, Galerie Argus fotokunst, Berlin
2024 Life dances on, Robert Frank in dialogue, MoMA, NY
Collections :
Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas
Museum of photographie, Winterthur
Polaroid collection, Massachusetts
June Leaf (1929- 2024)
Gwenolee Zürcher is also thrilled to announce that June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart, an important retrospective will be held at the Addison Gallery of American Art ( March 15- July 31, 2025), then traveling to the Grey Art Museum, NY (September-December 2025 and to the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College (January 27- May 24, 2026).