Seven Stories

A long-overdue reissue of Frank’s sought-after set of Polaroid photobooks

Originally released in 2009, Seven Stories was the first publication of Robert Frank’s Polaroids. Quickly sold-out, it has been a collector’s rarity ever since. This 2024 edition makes the book available again at long last, shepherding his extraordinary series to a whole new audience.
After completing The Americans, Frank put aside the still image and concentrated throughout the 1960s on filmmaking. He returned to still photography only in the 1970s, using a Polaroid camera with black-and-white positive/negative film. In recent years, Frank worked almost exclusively with Polaroids, exploring the collage and assemblage possibilities of the instant photograph.
This slipcased collection of small, staple-bound books represents a new stage in the practice of a remarkable artist who continually challenged the limits of photography and film and strove to avoid repeating himself. As always, the photographs and stories relate to Frank’s life and milieu, his homes in Mabou and New York and his travels, including trips to China and Spain.