Bystander: A History of Street Photography

A quality piece of work from Bulfinch (Little, Brown.) Green cloth over hardback boards with a sewn binding in dustcover; 430 pp; approximately 300 b & w illustrations. Indexed, 3 pp of End Notes, and a 10 p Bibliography. TABLE OF CONTENTS Part One: Eugene Atget & the 19th Century - Before Photography - In the Beginning - The View from Abroad - Busmen's Holidays - Art for Art's Sake - Documents for Artists Part Two: Cartier-Bresson & Europe in the 20th Century - Children of the Century - The Decisive Photographer - Hungarian Rhapsody - Foreign Correspondents - The Fourth Estate Part Three: Walker Evans & America Before the War - Social Uplift - Collective Vision - American Classic Part Four: Robert Frank & America Since the War - Displaced Persons - Naturalized Citizens - An American in Paris - In the American Grain - The Chicago School - Still Going

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.

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.

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!

This book is a wonderful, detailed history and study of an area of photography usually lumped in with other forms of documentary photography or photojournalism. The quality of the commentary is extraordinary. My only criticism -- and it's a mild one -- was that often the photos referred to are not near the text.