Framing Roberto Bolaño

In 2008, New Directions approached the photographer Allen Frame, hoping to use one of his photographs on the cover of their new translation of “Last Evenings on Earth,” by the late Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. That year, a fated match was made. Frame, who draws inspiration from literary fiction and film noir, has an archive of images that evoke menace, intrigue, and sensuality—quintessential themes in Bolaño’s mystery novels. Although they have different backgrounds, Frame and Bolaño were born in early fifties and travelled to many of the same cities to photograph and write, from Acapulco, Mexico, to Barcelona, Spain.

“Allen Frame: Dialogue with Bolaño,” now on view at Gitterman Gallery, features nine of Frame’s photographs used for Bolaño covers and additional work in a similar vein. Frame continues to read Bolaño’s novels as they are posthumously published. “Having been able to find a kind of voice that I identify with in my generation is so satisfying,” he said in an interview with American Suburb X last month.

“Allen Frame: Dialogue with Bolaño” is on view through January 11, 2014.

All photographs courtesy Allen Frame/Gitterman Gallery.

Read Daniel Zalewski’s 2007 piece on Bolaño’s “The Savage Detectives.”