Bystander: A History of Street Photography with a new Afterword on SP since the 1970s

Nevertheless, the book is an interesting read, or should I say an interesting skim. I skimmed through the text, stopping to read interesting bits here and there. Had those interesting bits been retained, much of the rest of the text eliminated and more images included, it would be a 5-star book.

One other comment is that the emphasis is on American street photography, to the point that some notable non-American street photographers are excluded completely.


street photography descibed in detail   March 1, 2004
 1 out of 4 found this review helpful

A history of street photography described in both text and photos. The authors are well knowledged in the field and provide a very well layed out book that is enjoyable to read. A great coffee table book.


it's the photos...   May 22, 2002
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

BYSTANDER embraces the social & cultural history of street photography. It touches upon the works of master photographers, yet leaves out so much about the actual photographs.

Trying to follow Meyerowitz's & Westerbeck's conversation, both obviously deeply emotional about the subject of street photography, simply went over my head in a rush of technical details & passionate positing as to why which photographer did what.

It is, however, the photographs in BYSTANDER that draw you back, again & again. The earliest ones that beg to have been enlarged, so rich in texture & composition; the later ones with their implicit social commentaries.

When we say that a picture is worth a thousand words, we're not kidding! Each & every photograph, even those that I couldn't make head nor tail, tell stories of our predecessors' lives & times, letting social history unravel before our eyes.

BYSTANDER is for everyone who loves to look at the past - the everyday, angular, shadow & light city past, through the window of a camera.


well done...   April 16, 2002
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

first off, the authors do a fine job presenting to the reader an insightful history of street photography. they especially succeeded in explaining (or at least theorizing) how the various photographers came to create their respective photographic styles by finding sources of influence in modern art, architecture, and of course each other.
although there are other reviewers who believe the authors didn't give enough credit to hcb for shaping street photography into what it is today, it is important to note that even in the chapters which focus on the american photographers hcb is continuously cited as a major influence. just remember that this book is a history of street photography, not a bio of hcb!
i also agree with the reviewer who thought the photo placement within the book was a little inconvenient at times. but that minor problem does in no way detract from the overall value of such an insightful look at the history of street photography. enjoy!


Misguided   September 9, 2001
 16 out of 29 found this review helpful

History of Street Photography! - I grabbed the book. Sat down. leafed through, then stopped, read one chapter in full. And put it down in disgust. "History" implies a systematic approach, a viewpoint as well as recounting of names and facts, it implies ANALYSIS. And the latter the authors are simply not qualified to provide. Of the many paragraphs describing images of Henri Cartier-Bresson here is what sticks in mind: they are "weird", grey, somehow "wrong". By the end of the essay on HBC we find out that "at one time he was the most famous photographer in the world" (citing from memory) - and the major reason why the world decided so is missing - the authors neither understood themselves, nor were qualified to pick up the right explanation from the published criticism: HCB (which he confirmed nimself) applied knowledge of painting to photographic "instant compositions". His images are artist's sketches from life and have to be analyzed as such if they are to be understood at all.
Instead of analysis and examples of correct reading/interpretation of included photos the authors fill space with anecdotes: some American writer accompanying HCB was so much irritated by the latter that he felt like pushing him under the wheels of a truck.
The history of street photography according to the book is such: XIX century, HCB and Europeans, and two larger chapters on Americans, in toto exceeding the first half of the book. Obviously, the centre of all interesting developments is the USA, the rest of the world does not count. In the end we are supplied with another empty and voluble script of a conversation between the authors expostulating Winogrand (on the lines of "do you think that where HCB would stop, HW would push it harder - yeah!")
My conclusion: if you want to understand street photography as an artistic development, turn to other books, such as the excellent "Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art" by Jean-Pierre Montier (ISBN 0821222856).