Money Lines Frankís Pioneering Photos Show Class Divisions in Post-War Britain by Carolyn Chapman In Robert Frankís photographs of Welsh coal miners living in an isolated coal town in South Wales, England, the minersí clothing is old and tattered, and their facesófull of character and linesóare black from the layers of soot. They are poor, and they spend most of their lives crouching down in the dark coal mines doing hard, physical labor. Yet they smile in many of the photographs, spending their spare time with their families at home or with their neighbors in the local pub. Frankís photographs of London bankers, on the other hand, portray an entirely different world. In these images, men in dark suits and tall top hats seem to glide down the foggy city sidewalks, their faces expressionless, their bodies mechanical, and their lives completely defined by the money that they spend their days handling. They donít look at the camera and they donít interact with each other. Each seems to be in his own solitary world, isolated from everyone else, even though they are surrounded by others who look just like them. These two groups of sharply contrasting post-war photographs by Robert Frank, one of the pioneering ph otographers of his time, are now on display in ìRobert Frank: London/Walesî at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The approximately 90 photographs in the exhibition, taken between 1951 and 1953ósome never before seenóshow the sharp division between money and class in a rapidly changing post-war Britain. Frankís observations about the miners and the bankers also reflect his methods of photographing them as well as his personal views about social divisions. Frank observed and photographed the London bankers from afar, not making any attempt to get past their seemingly cold and mechanical facades. They were as distant to him as they appear to us in the photographs. But Frank did get close to the miners, particularly to one miner, Ben James, whom he chose to be the focus of most of his miner photographs. He photographed James in all areas of his daily life: at home reading the paper, working in the mines, standing in line to pick up his pay, playing pool, walking down the street. The bankers, however, donít come across as having any human emotions or anything else to do in life but pace up and down the damp, distant streets of Londonís banking district. Their tall black top hats stand out in the photographs, separating them from their surroundings and marking them as bankersóand nothing else. In a similar way, the soot that covers the minerís faces in nearly every photo is their identifying mark, although Frank respectfully portrays the minersí lives as traditional and full of life. Frankís Wales photographs are dark, gritty and full of realism. They are aesthetically very different from the London series, in which bankers seem to move quickly through an eternal state of fogginess, and the photographs are more artistically composed, divided by lines and grids. What is particularly interesting about this exhibit is that displayed alone, neither the Welsh miners nor the London bankers would stir up as much social context as they do when they are placed side by side. Although these photographs were taken at a transitional time in Britain, the extreme contrasts Frank portrays in these two opposing groups of photographs probably still exist today, though in a less photogenic way. In a companion exhibition to the Frank showcase at the Corcoran, ìBoth Sides of the Street: Celebrating the Corcoranís Photography Collectionî brings together works by artists who inspired Frank or were inspired by Frank, such as Diane Arbus, Walker Evans, Brassai and Eugene Atget. The exhibition also includes additional Frank photographs. ìRobert Frank: London/Walesî runs through July 14 and ìBoth Sides of the Street: Celebrating the Corcoranís Photography Collectionî runs through July 28 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th St., NW. For more information, please call (202) 639-1700 or visit www.corcoran.org. Carolyn Chapman is an arts writer for The Washington Diplomat.