Grim Street, the first monograph by photographer Mark Cohen, is a collection of classic street photography, documenting the people of Wilkes-Barre, the Pennsylvania mining town Cohen calls home. Mark Cohen first came to the attention of the photography world in 1973 with a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This iconic show proved to the art world that Cohen was the heir apparent to the explosive street photography of the 60s. In Grim Street, filled with what Cohen calls "grab shots," you can easily imagine the photographer guilefully patrolling the streets of Wilkes-Barre. His camera, often prefocused and shot from the hip, scrolls around its subjects searching for tidbits of delectable detail. Then suddenly thrusting out, a strobe bursts, capturing a violently cropped spot of stockinged legs creeping around a corner, or a woman's bared teeth and stretched lips. In these images emerges a cluttered world of visceral, sexualized encounters with the human body. Grim Street is anastonishing collection of Americana as bracing and startling refreshing as the best work of Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, or Weegee. Remarkable it is for its aesthetic intent, Cohen's work will surely be seen as a major influence on today's commercial and fashion photographers.
