When Robert Frank immigrated to New York from Zurich in 1947, having apprenticed with commercial photographers in his hometown, the aspiring young photographer brought along his portfolio to help him secure employment. Portfolio is the facsimile version of this fascinating object. Containing Frank's earliest original photographs as well the work of other photographers which he had retouched, the portfolio presents images of rural life in Switzerland alongside alpine landscapes, cityscapes and still-lifes. A guaranteed collector's item, this slim, beautifully printed volume contains the seeds of a career of such scope and influence that even the ambitious 23-year-old Robert Frank could never have anticipated it.

In 1950, Robert Frank left his job as a photographer in New York to travel through Europe with his family. That summer he arrived in Valencia, Spain, which was at the time a humble, bleak place enduring the austere conditions of the postwar period like the rest of the country. The pictures Frank took of Valencia depict the daily life of a fishing village. His portrayal is so natural and clear that further verbal explanation seems superfluous; they simply reflect, in the photo grapher's words, "the humanity of the moment." The photographs in this book, many of which have never been published before, allow dignity to override poverty.

Previously published in 1959, Frank's most famous and influential photography book contained a series of deceptively simple photos that he took on a trip through America in 1955 and 1956. These pictures of everyday people still speak to us today, 40 years and several generations later.