Robert Frank's groundbreaking works

Two women standing at the window during a 1955 parade in New Jersey: the darkened face of one of them is barely revealed and the other is completely hidden by a huge US flag. If it is easy for us to recognize the poetry in the composition of this photo today, it is thanks to Frank's pioneering work. Such shots were highly unusual when his book "The Americans" came out at the end of the 1950s.

Story-telling snapshots: Frank's documentary approach focused on narrative. The passengers of this segregated trolley landed on the cover of Robert Frank's cult classic book, "The Americans," prefaced in the US edition by Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac. "The humor, the sadness, the EVERYTHING-ness and American-ness of these pictures!" wrote Kerouac in his introduction.

A long-planned exhibition at the C/O Berlin museum, titled "Robert Frank. Unseen," happens to open only three days after the photographer's death at the age of 94. The show combines contact sheets and photos he took during his travels around Europe and South America, as well as pictures from the US that weren't published in "The Americans." The exhibition can be seen until November 30, 2019.

Even before the publication of "The Americans," Edward Steichen, who served as the director of the department of photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art, had recognized Frank's talent and invited him to take part in a group exhibition, "51 American Photographers," at the prestigious museum. These earlier works are also shown at the C/O Berlin photography museum.

Another influential photographer in Frank's life was Walker Evans, renowned for his stark portrayal of the Great Depression in 1930s. He secured Frank's Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed him to travel around the US in 1955. During these travels, he took nearly 30,000 photos; 83 of them landed in "The Americans." Shots such as this one show how Evans was also an artistic influence for Frank.

Despite support from established names in photography, it was difficult to convince US publishers to take on this project. "The Americans" first came out in France in 1958; the US edition, by taboo-breaking publisher Grove Press, followed a year later. "Popular Photography" magazine criticized the "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons, and general sloppiness" of the photos.

Frank not only rejected classic photo techniques, he also approached a series of topics that weren't often found in illustrated magazines in the 1950s. The Swiss-born photographer was fascinated by the contrasts of his adoptive country. Questioning the concept of the "American Dream," he also explored racial relations, such as in this photo of a white baby with his African-American nanny.

"When 'The Americans' came out, America was on the rise. America had won the war. But he saw something different, things that were not as rosy a picture as 'Life' magazine might have had it," Mark Lubell, director of the International Center of Photography, told press agency AP of the book that contributed to a shift in post-war culture: "Robert Frank changed the way we see."

After gaining international recognition for his photos, Frank shifted to underground filmmaking, with works including "Pull My Daisy" (1959) and a documentary about The Rolling Stones called "Cocksucker Blues" (1972). "He was an incredible artist whose unique style broke the mold," the band tweeted in tribute to Frank, whose work is also featured on the cover of their album "Exile on Main St."

The death of his daughter in a plane crash and his son's schizophrenia diagnosis in the 1970s led Frank to return to photography and adopt a more introspective approach to his work, in which he'd create montages and write on his pictures. His work "shifted from being about what I saw to what I felt," he told "The Guardian." "I didn't believe in the beauty of a photograph anymore."

Even though he didn't make many public appearances, he did take on various assignments later in his career, including directing music videos for New Order and Patti Smith. Robert Frank died on September 9, at the age of 94 in Nova Scotia, Canada, where he lived. Kerouac's description of how Frank "sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film" applies to his varied oeuvre.