Dave Anderson’s Rough Beauty takes as its subject Vidor, Texas, a small rural town that carries the weight of its reputation. Made over an extended period and published by Dewi Lewis in 2006, the series looks past the stereotypes attached to the place—its association with the Ku Klux Klan, its history of racial violence—to the daily reality of a community held together by poverty and endurance. Anderson, who worked in the White House and in television before turning to photography, approaches his subjects without condescension, allowing them to occupy the frame on their own terms.

The ninety duotone photographs gathered here describe a world that feels at once specific and emblematic. Anderson’s square format, echoed in the book’s 250 by 250 millimetre dimensions, gives each encounter a measured, unsentimental composure, while the sequencing builds a portrait of a town rather than a file of individual cases. Anne Wilkes Tucker, then curator of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, provides the introduction, situating the work within a documentary tradition while respecting its distinct register. Her presence as author is separate from Anderson’s role as photographer; the images are his.

What distinguishes Rough Beauty is its refusal of easy judgment. The book neither excuses Vidor’s past nor reduces its residents to victims of it. Instead, Anderson records the ordinary dignities and hard compromises of people getting by in a place that has been written off. The result is a body of work that earns its title without romanticising hardship.

For collectors of American documentary photography, the book occupies a useful position: it is a substantial, carefully produced hardback from a photographer recognised early in his career by the Santa Fe Center for Photography’s project competition. Its concerns—class, place, memory, and the ethics of looking—remain urgent, and the collaboration with Tucker gives the project a scholarly frame that rewards sustained attention.