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Next Door, Down the Road, Around the Corner
An American Family Album
Richard Balzer
Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1973, 192 pages
ISBN 0-385-05407-6

In 1970, recent college graduate Richard Balzer set out to discover America. He ultimately traveled over 50,000 miles through 47 states, photographing the people he met along the way.

This book presents a wide selection of those photographs. Printed in black & white, they are primarily people shots with only an occasional scenic image. Brief captions give only the photograph's location, but a number of text pieces, ranging in length from a half a page to six pages, are mixed in with the photos.

The photographs vary somewhat in terms of both technical quality and aesthetic quality, but his best photos are quite good. The people he photographs are almost always aware that they are being photographed. The photos don't really look posed, but they do lack some of the spontaneity that is present in more candid pictures.

Recommended if you are interested in photojournalism.