Mathers, Michael. Portraits: Friends and Strangers by Michael Mathers.

 Madrona, 1979. Wraps, 1st edition, very good.  Portraits of a range of men, women, children, and groups, one to a page, often with Mathers’ text on facing page. Includes some nudity.  Substantial monograph, unpaginated.  

Michael Mathers (1945–2024) was an American documentary photographer and author best known for his immersive visual studies of subcultures and communities. After earning a degree in English from Harvard University in 1968, he adopted an experiential approach to photojournalism, immersing himself directly in the lifestyles of the subjects he documented. He achieved widespread acclaim for his landmark 1973 book, Riding the Rails, which combined his black-and-white photography with audio transcripts and personal accounts to capture the lives of hobos travelling by freight train across the United States. Mathers, eventually based in Astoria, Oregon, produced a number of photography books. He expanded his portfolio into architectural photography as well as local portraiture projects, such as his Astoria Portraits series, earning recognition for his intimate, empathetic presence and his ability to record disappearing corners of American life.