Mabou
Robert Frank
American, born Switzerland.1924–2019
1991
A gelatin silver photograph in which Robert Frank isolates a toy flamingo sealed inside a glass bottle on a dark plinth, using spare composition and soft focus to stage a quiet, melancholic meditation on memory and containment.
You're first arrested by the fragile, luminous bottle and its ghostlike flamingo suspended in a wash of gray, the scene hovering between shadow and a distant glowing orb that reads like a fading recollection.
Part of Frank’s late, intimate work, this image moves his documentary eye into personal still life—elevating humble, found objects into enigmatic narratives and encouraging photographers to see the everyday as a source of poetic reflection.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
16 1/4 × 21 11/16" (41.3 × 55.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Family of Man Fund
Accession
285.2003
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
