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Another Robert Frank Interview via NPR This story, complete with Frank talking beside a crackling fireplace, aired yesterday.

In the summer of 1973, photographer Stephen Shore set out on that quintessential American adventure - the cross-country road trip. Starting in New York City, he made a long loop around the nation, going through Michigan, North Dakota and Idaho, off to the West Coast, and then followed a southern route all the way back to New York. During his month-long trip, he kept extensive records, noting where he stayed, what he ate and what television programs he watched. He collected postcards of the places he visited, kept all of his receipts and, not unexpectedly, took hundreds of pictures. Now, 35 years later, his entire journal has been reproduced and published in a book fittingly titled A Road Trip Journal.

There are few single works of art that have changed the direction of their medium. In 1959, one book dramatically altered how photographers looked through their viewfinders and the way Americans saw themselves. The Americans was the work of Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, and the National Gallery of Art is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the book's American debut with an exhibition. Curator Sarah Greenough says The Americans was actually reviled when it was first published in the United States. "Popular Photography asked a number of writers to critique the book and almost all of them were very negative," Greenough says. "It was described as a sad poem by a very sick person."