The World Atlas of Street Photography

by Jackie Higgins

The energetic, fluctuating pace of the metropolis has long lured photographers to capture—often candidly—the chaos, character, and incident of modern urban life ever since the genesis of photography in the 19th century. The World Atlas of Street Photography focuses on the abundance of photos created on street corners internationally, including classic documentary street photography as well as mediated images of urban landscapes, staged performances, and sculpture. Twelve specially commissioned artworks are featured, in addition to a wide selection of striking and well-known images of city life. Lively and informative, this handsome book compiles expressions of a vibrant genre and is the first of its kind to scour the globe—from New York to New Delhi, Beijing to Brighton, Havana to Hamburg, and Sydney to Seoul.

Photographers Francis Alÿs, Nobuyoshi Araki, Narelle Autio, Uta Barth, Olivo Barbieri, Yto Barrada, Matthew Baum, Dawoud Bey, Peter Bialobrzeski, Birdhead, Julio Bittencourt, Mohamed Bourouissa, Polly Braden, Serge Bratkov, Adam Broomberg, Andrew Bush, Sophie Calle, Edson Chagas, Yasmine Chatila, Oliver Chanarin, Gregory Crewdson, Maciej Dakowicz, Zhang Dali, Luc Delahaye, Philip-Lorca Dicorcia, Hans Eijkelboom, JH Engström, Essop Twins, Weng Fen, Ana Carolina Fernandes, Peter Funch, Bruce Gilden, David Goldblatt, Oscar Fernando Gómez, Paul Graham, Katy Grannan, Sunil Gupta, Cristóbal Hara, Naoya Hatakeyama, Bill Henson, Edi Hirose, Pieter Hugo, Michael Itkoff, Claudia Jaguaribe, Nils Jorgensen, Ahn Jun, Osamu Kanemura, Johnnie Shand Kydd, Nikki S. Lee, Sze Tsung Leong, Vera Lutter, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Melanie Manchot, Jesse Marlow, Mirko Martin, Joel Meyerowitz, Boris Mikhailov, Sabelo Mlangeni, Luis Molina-Pantin, Mimi Mollica, Daido Moriyama, Sohei Nishino, Trent Parke, Martin Parr, Jiang Pengyi, Max Pinckers, Gus Powell, Raghu Rai, Jo Ratcliff, Alisa Resnik, Doug Rickard, Thomas Ruff, Txema Salvans, Viviane Sassen, Tokihiro Sato, Boris Savelev, Slinkachu, Otto Snoek, Trine Søndergaard, Hannah Starkey, Joel Sternfeld, Beat Streuli, Matt Stuart, Mikhael Subotzy, Ying Tang, Guy Tillim, Wolfgang Tillmans, Alexey Titarenko, Cássio Vasconcellos, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Massimo Vitali, Jeff Wall, Gillian Wearing, Alex Webb, Wim Wenders, Richard Wentworth, Graeme Williams, Sue Williamson, Michael Wolf, Shizuka Yokomizo, Yang Yong.

Genres: Photography, Art

399 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[GlenK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This world-wide look at "street" photography is quite extensive (emphasis on the US, Europe, and Japan) and often pretty inspiring. I put "street" in quotes because there is a great deal of photography here that does not seem particularly street-oriented or - for that matter - even urban. Also, there is much that is heavily processed/manipulated. Contrast this with the recent volume "The Street Photographer's Manual" with it's extremely rigid view of what is and isn't street photography.

[Ясен В. · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

I'm really torn on how to rate this book.

I really like the way the book is edited together. The text accompanying the images is well crafted, the layout is good as well.

I found out about several photographers I somehow never stumbled upon, whose work I really like.

Most of my issues with it come from my perception of what street photography is and it differs from the way the editors of The world atlas of street photography define it. On the other hand I understand that it wants to be an atlas and show more concepts than just that of candid street shooting. Photoshopping images together is not what I look for in street shots, but others might find enjoyment in it.

I'll give it two and a half stars for now, as it's an okay book, worth browsing, but as time passes, I might bump it to three.

[Donna Quinlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's interesting to read about photographers from around the world and to view their photos. Street photography is interpreted differently by some of the artists (and from what I thought of as street photography).

[Jose Adan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a street photography enthusiast I really had good time while reading personal stories about photographers and the way they see street photography. I really liked this book, I discovered new street photographers I didn’t know.

[Steve Angelkov · Rating 4 out of 5]

decent collection of Street photography from around the world.

[Ralph N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure if everything on here is technically street, but still a good look. Has a lot of photographers I haven’t heard of before

[Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brazilian photographers are quite skilled.
Italian Olivo Barbieri ..wow!

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have loved to see more photographs per photographer and my suggestion is to make this book into a series every 5 years or even every year.

[Allan Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not studied photography formally, but take solace that many of the 100 photographers featured in this thorough volume of the urban landscape and its people have learned their craft from the harsh realities of the street.

Nevertheless I may be utterly under-qualified to provide a meaningful critique of this very considered book, The World Atlas of Street Photography, published by Thames & Hudson.

Author Jackie Higgins has done a masterful job. The structure of the book is geographical, by world region. Each photographer gets a page or two, with a pertinent selection of his or her work.

As one would expect, most images feature people. Some are candid; others are posed. And some photographers concentrate more on the physical environment -- the human influence without the presence of any inhabitants themselves.

What I like is that there's no need to read the book from cover-to-cover. You can peruse the pages and stop and inspect more of what captures your eye. (Perhaps not unlike the behaviour of a practiced street photographer.) The biographical entries are well written and easy to digest.

Max Kozloff sets the global scene in his foreword. I particularly like his statement of how "photographers have reacted with a discursive strategy of their own", including a response to "post-modernist scepticism towards documentary forms".

Because street photography tells stories, of the photographer and the photographed. Some stories are easier to decipher from the images than others, but story telling is one of man's longest-running habits. Long live the documentary style, updated for the 21st century.

And that is my only mild criticism -- there is no modern signposting of any of the photographers. Perhaps these acclaimed artists are beyond Flickr and Tumblr, but I would have appreciated links to at least portfolio websites. There's also no bibliography or further reading section.

Yet The World Atlas of Street Photography should be on any self-respecting street photographer's bookshelf. Jackie Higgins achieves her objective of showcasing illuminating juxtapositions, as she puts it, providing the reader with ample inspiration and insight of a wide variety of techniques and styles.

It is a true atlas of the street genre.