With 50mm lenses and available light, John Fraser took these classic humanist photos in Minneapolis, New York, London, Nova Scotia, Provence, starting in 1957.
In the tradition of Cartier-Bresson, there's no cropping. What you see is what was there—street interactions caught lightning fast, informal portraits, oldsters, kids, a Blues group, a campaigning JFK within arms-length, and always the impeccable composition and feel for the symbolic.
The images are arranged in poem-like sequences—moody Shadows, lyrical Sun, symbolic Erotics, the old and new London in eight Postcards. The Republicans at a little street rally look like type-casting. But there's no programmatic irony, and the pervasive tone of the book is enjoyment.
These are works that don't date.
