GRIM STREET [Hardcover]

I lived on Grim Street . In the mid 1970's I lived in the Heights Section of Wilkes-Barre Pa where Mr Cohen did many of the photos in this fine collection. He was a quiet fixture on those streets on a late Sunday afternoon. One would see the tall lanky stranger in his army fatigue jacket and horn rimmed glasses walking along those streets occassionally stopping to quickly photograph a stray dog or an unwashed child along the sidewalk. There was almost a random approach to his subjects but he would bend and sometimes stoop as he would click off 4 or 5 quick "snaps" of his subject and then be off after his next subject. I was in my early 20's at the time and curious as to how anyone could find interest in those mundane often grimy if not grim scenes in that neighborhood. I now have the answer over 30 years later. This fascinating collection evokes a time and place that could represent any of our inner city neighborhoods. The black and white of the pictures captures the mood and feel of the subjects. I recommend this volume as a must have for any serious student of photography or urban life over the past century.

Mark Cohen is a restless poet of a photographer. In GRIM STREET he demonstrates his enormous ability to grasp a winking moment of life in the back streets, isolated fleeting views of the ordinary made extraordinary. This very fine book of photographs is less attuned to compositionally correct images as emotionally charged ones. As such it is a monograph of the smarmy, dark, seedy and at times embarrassingly immediate life of the underbelly of America as represented by the streets of Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Cohen's successful forays in to this territory are accompanied by 'interviews' conducted by Anne Wilkes Tucker and Thomas Southall. The composite result is a book that 'reads' like a novel and will remain compelling present in the mind's eye long after perusing it. Fine work! Grady Harp, August 05

GRIM STREET is 142 pages long and contains 100 full-page black and white photographs of street scenes from residential neighborhoods. With repeated viewings, some of the pictures grow on you, and one is struck with the unusual artfulness of these pictures. I found only 8 such pictures. On the plus side, these 8 photos are inspiring and could easily be expanded upon by other photographers into a portfolio of a dozen or so related images.

JUMP ROPE shows a girl standing while holding a jump rope. The jump rope is twisted once between her legs. The image does not include the girl's head or feet.

LILLIAN SALTING shows a hand holding a salt shaker, with streams of salt pouring out of some 20 holes in the salt shaker, where the streams of salt fall into a cloud of steam rising from a kettle of boiling water.

MOTORCYCLE GANG ON GROUND shows a man lying on the ground, while another man pours beer into the first man's mouth. Two hands are shown, each clutching a cigarette. An arm over to the right bears a tattoo of the devil. The photo is an ensemble scene. The composition is similar to these by photographer Larry Fink, as found in his marvelous book, SOCIAL GRACES.

KID IN WINDOW AND GAS TUBE shows a juxtaposition of a silvery metal cylinder mounted on the outside of a house, with a value and bent gas lines and an infant inside of the house. The infant is visible through a window situated next to the silver cylinder. The infant sits on a table and is stabilized by its mother's hands. The infant's bald forehead resembles, in form, the round top of the silvery cylinder of gas. The textures of the gas tank, shingling on the house, and window, collaborate to make a very interesting photograph, worthy of repeated viewings.

TWO GUYS' SHOES AND FEET is unusual in that it is a closeup of two adjacent feet, but each foot belongs to a different man. The pants are different. The shoes have a different style. The socks have different colors. Despite these differences, upon first glance the viewer assumes that both feet belong to the same person. But after a few seconds, one realizes that the feet and legs are contributed by two different people.

GIRLS PLAYING UNDER A BOX shows two girls with one box over their heads. It is a cute picture, but the same type of image has been done before by photographer HELEN LEVITT.

BUBBLE GUM is the standout photograph in GRIM STREET. We see a blown up bubble gum filled with a girl's breath, and behind the bubble is the girl holding the bubble in her mouth, and behind the girl is a child holding his outstretched hand above the girl's head. The outstretched hand, with its splayed fingers, resembles a crown over the girl's head. This is the type of photograph that is often taken by photographer Martin Parr.

BOYS ON BICYCLE shows an arrangement of arms and handlebars, where two boys are sitting on one bicycle. One of the boys has ink-pen tattoos on his arm. One is the name, "DICK." The other is a drawing of a crucifix. The image brings to mind the paintings of Phillip Pearlstein, because if its sculptural quality. In other words, the goal of the image is to show an interesting composition, as might be found in a sculpture made from welded tubes or scrap metal.

CONCLUSION. GRIM STREET is an excellent tool for photographers interested in inspiration for their own portfolios. At least to me, only 7 or 8 photographs were inspiring.

I am not sure why I would want to look at this book more than three times. There are other photographers with portfolios that I like to view repeatedly. These include Nicholas Nixon, Helen Levitt, Martin Parr, Larry Fink, and Max Yavno. Like Mark Cohen, each of these photographers has created a portfolio of street scenes, or informal family scenes, where children abound. But the quality and quantity of these other portfolios are better than that of GRIM STREET (providing that quality is measured by clarity, sharpness, and novelty in composition).

Graininess and blurriness is sometimes used, to excellent effect, as a technique in photography. Perhaps, for some of the photos in GRIM STREET, it might reasonably be argued that the graininess and blurriness adds something, or that these are integral components of the photo. But I am not sure why most of the GRIM STREET photos need to be blurry or grainy. THREE STARS.