Customer Reviews

Street Photography: From Atget to Cartier-Bresson

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I first saw this book in Hardback at a local retailer and was disappointed at its $76 price, so while cashier was ringing up a couple other items for me, I logged onto Amazon on my iPhone and ordered this paperback version. Only downside was the 24 hour wait as I was hooked on this book from its first few pages.

Although appearing as though this is a summary of late 19th and early 20th century photography written decades ago, it was just written in 2007. The author's style lends itself to giving it a true resonance of authenticity while providing the necessary hindsight implied in the many years between photograph and now. There are hundreds of inset quotations from early manuscripts and accompanying photographs that give you an enormous amount of insight into how paintings and photographs played off of each other and how much goes into just seeing the picture you are about to make.

It's not a manual, but a spiritual guide for opening your eyes, and in many cases, limiting your view through the lens instead, to capture a certain moment in time. It is this moment that psychologists all talk about as "living in the moment". And for me, that is where this book becomes a textbook for that eternal quest.

Anyone who loves photography and struggles with over thinking, dwelling on the past, or dreading the future, need only read a few passages from this book, pick up your Leica or pocket camera and start seeing the world the way it is.... Right at this exact moment..... Now. It's amazingly therapeutic. You will see the world differently after reading this book.

this is extremely thorough if not slightly wordy opus. While reading, it gave the impression of a major paper written for peer review. On the downside I felt that it was not overtly aimed toward the "layperson" photographer. If I were to be in a place to ask, I would also wish for more photographic illustrations. However it is well worth plowing through for its insights into street photog as related to other movements in the arts and letters from the same epoch.

It's a well-written book with thorough footnotes. It's NOT, however, the type of book to inspire modern-day street photographers. If you like Post Modern analysis of pre-1960 French street photography, however, this may well be the book for you.