I recently reviewed another book by Dougie Wallace (Stags, Hens & Bunnies) about groups of adults enjoying the wild life in Blackpool (a seaside vacation resort in the UK) and my criticism of that apply to this Shoreditch title. The photos are essentially snaps that anyone could have taken and apart from a couple of photos with a London Transport bus (the number eight goes through Shoreditch) these could probably be taken in Birmingham, Liverpool or Manchester, cities that equally have a lively working class street culture.
The photos at least have a consistant color feel because they were taken by the same person/camera, always on the prowl for that candid shot. I've read that Wallace could be considered a Glasweegee (he grew up in Glasgow) after Weegee the street snapper who captured the grittyness of Manhattan in the thirties and forties. I feel this is over generous, Weegee concerntrated on capturing street scenes he could sell to the New York tabloids and it was important to get some feel of the location where a crime or accident had occurred. So many of Wallace's photos tend to be close-ups of people.
The book is paperback size and really should have been turned sideways so that the many lanscape photos could be much bigger than the page width here. They all butt together into the book's spine leaving an excessive chunk of white space below them.
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