This is the first book review in what will be a new weekly offering on Thursdays. Photo books (and the possible art tome) old and new will be discussed. In the beginning, most of the titles will be extracted from my personal library.

Robert Frank: London/Wales by Robert Frank.
This is the early 1950s work of the renowned Robert Frank. The photos foreshadowed his 1955-56 Guggenheim Fellowship work that lead to his pioneering classic, The Americans (as mentioned in the photo book list). The photographs, still gritty as if technical issues were secondary, are windows into the evolving style of Frank. Frank subjectively documents the dichotomy between the earthen miners of Wales and the aristocratic bankers of London. The premise leads to an expressive exploration, Frank's attempt at a "Story," of two distinct strata in the socioeconomic soup of post-war England. As he follows his story, the images are not just depictions of people; environment is the continuous allegory flowing through. Each image becomes a stark revelation describing difference between the wealthy and poor. The haves and have-nots. Without outward acknowledgment, the people involved depend on each other in an unrecognized symbiotic relationship.

One photograph in particular has stayed with me since viewing the images in exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. In it is a small coal car is filled with numerous miners. They are dirty and tired. Their faces, from the largest in front and descending in layers to those in back, show a weary grimness. But each, in the complicated composition, is different. The common aspect -- other than the work clothes, equipment and grime -- is the instilled sense of humanity.

This is a very good book and should be on the shelf of any person who is interested in artistic expression entwined in social documentary photojournalism.