Customer Reviews

Dorchester Days

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Eugene Richards is arguably America's greatest living social documentary photographer, and "Dorchester Days" is his photographic portrait of the blue collar Boston neighborhood in which he came of age.

Originally self-published and printed on a press intended for canning lables, this Phaidon reissue and update of this classic does real justice to Richard's stunning in-your-face documentary style. In addition to including all the original photos and text, this new addition includes photos Richards made of the racial strife in nearby South Boston in the 1970s, as well as additional text, most of it reproduced in Richard's handwriting.

Gene Richards is, sadly, one of a dwindling if-not-dying breed of documentary photographer, whose lives and work are dedicated to telling the stories of the voiceless. A former Vista volunteer and Civil Rights worker, Richards continues to expend his greatest photographic effort to doing good by doing art. And for that reason - even if he wasn't the W. Eugene Smith of our era - this multiple-time Magazine Photographer of the Year deserves the support of anyone seriously interested in photography, or in the lives of the people respectfully examined in his work.

Before studying photographs, I did not realize why he has been so highly evaluated, though I felt every his photograph is so strong. But now I really understand his unique vision attracts the viewer. I cannot believe this high quality book was originaly self-published book. His view to see the world is what has not seen. The photographs tell he had close relationships with the subject. So, it is not difficult for the viewer to relate them to the subject. I wish I were the camera he holds...