Michael Ackermann

What did it mean to photographer Michael Ackerman and filmmaker Jem Cohen to ring the bell beside the singular green door of Robert Frank and June Leaf’s timeworn home on New York’s Bleecker Street? Or for Cohen to traverse dirt roads to their equally weathered house high above the ocean in Nova Scotia? Would it be an intensely beautiful encounter or a sad dismissal, a life-changing inspiration or a sorely missed moment?
Visitors reflects on Cohen and Ackerman’s times spent with Frank and Leaf, two artists with whom they had profound friendships and respect. The publication takes the form of a scrapbook of their photos and filmstrips, alongside letters, postcards and drawings by Robert and June. Ackerman and Cohen’s images of the two are candid, empathetic and aesthetically daring: June and Robert thinking, laughing, waiting, working and watching the world go by. Including a Blu-ray of a yet unreleased documentary film about the couple by Cohen, Visitors is a gift for all of us who never had the chance (or nerve) to ring the bell by that green door.