From the Developer Photographs of Birmingham at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts

I HAVE ALWAYS been curious about what draws newspapers to review plays or books. I suppose they do it because we all have limited amounts of money and cannot afford to go to every play in town. So we send out a reviewer, and hope we can decide from his report whether to see the real thing. Since the exhibit at Carpenter Center is free, I suggest that you go out and see it for yourself. I think it will suffice for now to say that among the photographs are several which I have seen over and over in the past week. They and I have become good friends. I think you will like them too.

Having dispatched the business end of this review. I am left to add the flourishes. Before I rush too far afield, however, let me tell you a little about the exhibit. The photographs were taken in Birmingham, England by Janct Mendelsohn and Richard Rodgers in 1968. Both Mendelsohn and Rodgers now teach at the Carpenter Center.

Dick Rodgers' part of the exhibit centers around a young man named Frank who grew up in one of the working neighborhoods of Birmingham. He has a family and his wife works. He spends most of his time painting. Rodgers presents photographs of Frank and his neighborhood along with some transcripts of Frank's comments about life.

Janet Mendelsohn's part of the exhibit concentrates on a description of Tina Donnelly, who lives in a different working section of Birmingham. Tina cranes money by soliciting. Several of her friends are also "on the game." They are part of a prevailing pattern in the neighborhood in which a white girl will live with and support her "colored" pimp. In England, "colored" refers to immigrants from the Commonwealth countries notably Pakistan, India, the West Indies and Jamaica.

British racial prejudice began early in Birmingham. Enoch Powell's constituency is in that area. One of the reasons many of the pimps are immigrants is that they have been discouraged by the prejudice they have met in more legitimate enterprises. Miss Mendelsohn said, however, that there seems to be an underlying trait shared by the girls on the game and their men. They find the routine of industrial life too restrictive. "That they choose to live the life they do," she said, "is an indication of a kind of strength, not weakness."

Miss Mendelsohn's photographs are powerful. The viewer feels an intimacy for Tina and Hanif which is rarely accomplished with photographs. Part of this success rests with the quality of the photographs. An important part, however, rests with just what Miss Mendelsohn is describing. She shows us Tina and Tina's friends. She gives quotations by the friends about each other. The collection of photographs becomes more than just descriptions of several people. It becomes a family of interrelated people and images, each adding to and explaining the other.

Rodgers' photographs of Frank suffer somewhat by comparison. We get to know Frank a little, but our knowledge is limited because his parents, friends and wife are only vaguely described or quoted. There are certain things which a person does not say about himself. To know a person well, you must know something of his friends and what they think of him.

There is a further distinction between the treatment of Tina and the treatment of Frank. Tina talks of her friends, and Frank talks of abstract things like class structure and values. The curious reset is that although one might expect them to be more mundane, the things Tina says are more powerful. When you talk about society or life in general, you often make generalizations and simplifications. When talking honestly about things closer to yourself, however, you reveal the internal contradictions and conflicts that are in everyone. I suppose that is the moral of this review that in the details lies the beauty.