Review: “Fall River Boys” by Richard Renaldi

I met Richard Renaldi while living in New York two summers ago. I already knew Richard was a great photographer but I discovered then that he was also a really great guy; among the “art world” folk that I met that summer, Richard was undoubtedly one of the most friendly and generous. Since that summer, I’ve made sure to keep in touch and have continued to follow his work.

Richard’s new book, Fall River Boys, was just released as an edition of 1,200 through Charles Lane Press, a publishing house for photography that he founded along with his partner Seth Boyd. I had the pleasure of finally sitting down and spending some time with my copy of the book the other night.

It will surprise some that, unlike Figure and Ground (Aperture, 2006), Richard’s last monograph, Fall River Boys is made up entirely of black and white images. Though the palette has shifted, Richard is still approaching his subjects with an 8x10 camera and still making photographs that are quiet, tender and as lush as ever. The 89 tritone plates within the book are all carefully printed, making Fall River Boys live up to Charles Lane Press’ admirable credo: “books as essential objects, akin to works of art themselves.”


spread from Fall River Boys (Charles Lane Press, 2009)
© Richard Renaldi

In 2000, Richard began visiting Fall River, a town in Massachusetts which was at one point at the center of American textile manufacturing. Now, strewn with abandoned architecture - “darkened relics of an industrial past” - Fall River is, like much of America, uncertain of its future. For nine years following, Richard returned to Fall River to photograph and eventually produce Fall River Boys, the culmination of this body of work. The book documents the stark surface of Fall River and the faces of the young adults growing up there.


spread from Fall River Boys (Charles Lane Press, 2009)
© Richard Renaldi

Richard’s portraits are made in the tradition of German photographer August Sander and his landscapes immediately call to mind the formal approach of Walker Evans. Fall River Boys does a nice job moving from portraits (primarily of boys at the age where they are becoming “men”) to the occasional landscape, both of which depict a somber kind of beauty. In the introduction to the book, Michael Cunningham notes that Fall River’s motto is “We Try.” Turning through the pages of the book, I began to wonder about the lives of the subjects in the photographs and consider how little opportunity is reflected in the weary landscape that surrounds them. Trying, it seems, is all there is to do.


spread from Fall River Boys (Charles Lane Press, 2009)
© Richard Renaldi

It’s hard to find fault with Fall River Boys. After arriving at the last page, I initially felt as though the book could be shorter, perhaps benefiting from a more succinct edit. But I quickly realized that there is something effective about the large number of portraits of boys - it is as though they become one. I’m not sure if this is at all Richard’s intent, as I imagine he may be more interested in presenting each as unique, but I think he has simultaneously captured what they share, the way in which they all come together.

With Fall River Boys, Richard has again managed to affectionately open up the lives of strangers to his camera and, in turn, to us.

Pick up a copy of the book here or here.