The Library of Congress Acquires Working Photographers Prints

Photographers are finding many unconventional homes for their work these days, but Brian Frank was especially surprised when the Library of Congress wanted to purchase some of his photos that other media outlets had passed on.

“One of the first things I thought about was that I’d be part of a collection with the great FSA photographers,” says Frank, a San Francisco photojournalist. “The works of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange have inspired me since my time in school.”

Renowned for its holdings of Depression-era photographs by the Farm Security Administration, photojournalism archives and government documents, the Library of Congress’ Prints & Photographs Division is the largest public collection of its kind in the United States. The responsibilities of the Library of Congress are not limited to conserving, curating and digitizing its historical holdings, however. The Prints & Photographs Division is actively identifying historical gaps, sourcing work and buying prints from photographers. With over 14 million items in the stacks it is not the typical client.

In July, the Library of Congress bought six prints by Frank from his photo essay Downstream: The Death of the Colorado. The work documents overpopulation, pollution and over-damning in the American Southwest and the Northern Baja and Sonora regions of Mexico. Frank says he accepted “a little less than market” because of the honor of being included in the archive.

“Much of our collection,” says Beverly Brannan, curator of photographs at the Library of Congress, “follows the anthropological lines laid out by the FSA photographs: man’s relationships with the land, agriculture, water use, how people celebrate seasons and community, what music they make. Brian’s images add to our collection of images about water resources.”

The acquisition is more remarkable given mainstream media’s relative lack of interest. Frank says his representation at Redux Pictures has been pushing the project hard, but that it may require up to 20 pages. The work was published online but it has not been in print.


Read the entire article at Wired.com

Return to Pete Hellmann Photography