Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 160 pages, b&w plates. An accomplished photographer of the American scene presents a unique artistic record that captures a vanishing part of our country, the main streets, barber shops, schoolhouses, and inhabitants of our small towns. In his 19th book on the American scene, Plowden has focused on what epitomizes small towns-before this endangered species disappears altogether. The well-produced images, arranged roughly by topic (e.g., schools, theaters, churches, home interiors, restaurants, stores, and grain elevators) and representing towns in many states (including Iowa, Kansas, West Virginia, New York, Minnesota, and Idaho), speak eloquently of small-town life. Even more so, they speak of change; by the time Plowden photographed these towns, most had been cut off from their rural heritages. Nevertheless, the photographs convey order, calm, and congeniality; the best of them evoke the work of Walker Evans, who, like Plowden, left scenes unaltered when he photographed them. Clean copy.
