Bystander: A History of Street Photography is a book by Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz, first published in 1994. [1] [2] [3] [4] The survey of street photography includes essays and texts accompanied by illustrative photographs. [5] It was revised and expanded in 2001 and again in 2017.
The core of Bystander is "a roughly chronological survey of European/American street photography featuring its key innovators, styles, and trends". [6] Westerbeck was responsible for the text, [6] which includes "subjects like the ethics of photographing human suffering or role of images in shaping collective perception of events". [5] In Blake Andrews' opinion, "the subtext to Westerbeck's thesis is that many of the facets driving street photography's current popularity — its simplicity, accessibility, honesty, and open-ended motivations — run counter to prevailing art world trends." [6] Meyerowitz curated the images, [6] of which there are "regularly spaced sections of twenty-plus pages with only photographs". [6]
The 1994 edition includes work by photographers of the late 19th century and 20th century, [7] including Eugène Atget, Stieglitz, Brassaï, André Kertész, Lewis Hine, Paul Strand, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Helen Levitt, Robert Frank, Walker Evans, Robert Capa, Ben Shahn, Lucien Aigner, William Klein, Dan Weiner, Saul Leiter, Jeff Mermelstein, Jeff Mermelstein, Alex Webb, Martin Parr, Harry Gruyaert, Peter Kayafas, and Meyerowitz.
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Bystander was republished in revised and expanded editions in 2001 and again in 2017. The 2001 edition, with the addition of the subtitle "with a new afterword on street photography since the 1970s", introduced contemporary street photographers such as Melanie Einzig and Gus Powell. [8] For the 2017 edition Westerbeck said he "rewrote the entire book". [9] This edition includes a re-evaluation of historical material, adds work by more photographers (including Richard Bram, [7] [9] Maciej Dakowicz, [1] [2] Vivian Maier, [6] Trent Parke, [6] Matt Stuart, [10] Nick Turpin [1] [3] and others) and a new chapter which examines developments in the genre since 1994 and a discussion of the rise of digital photography. [5] [7] [9]
In reviewing the book, Blake Andrews wrote of the 1994 and 2001 editions that "there's been a rush of street photography surveys published this millennium [. . .] But these have been primarily concerned with the contemporary. None have given street photography the historical framework and academic study that Bystander did." In Andrews' opinion of the photographs curated by Meyerowitz, "his choices are smart and enlightening." Of the 2017 edition, Andrews wrote that, given "the movement has grown so quickly it threatens to outstrip its own foundation [. . .] a lot is left uncovered. Indeed, wide swaths are missing completely. [. . .] Bystander is essentially a Eurocentric, white male survey [. . .] If the book were subtitled A History of Street Photography in Europe and the U.S. it would be no problem. But the actual subtitle, A History of Street Photography, promises more — too much, as it turns out. [. . .] Faults aside, Bystander is required reading for all street photographers." [6]
Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist. Some variations of the term genre art specify the medium or type of visual work, as in genre painting, genre prints, genre photographs, and so on.
Street photography, also sometimes called candid photography, is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Although there is a difference between street and candid photography, it is usually subtle with most street photography being candid in nature and some candid photography being classifiable as street photography. Street photography does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment. Though people usually feature directly, street photography might be absent of people and can be of an object or environment where the image projects a decidedly human character in facsimile or aesthetic.
Joel Meyerowitz is an American street, portrait and landscape photographer. He began photographing in color in 1962 and was an early advocate of the use of color during a time when there was significant resistance to the idea of color photography as serious art. In the early 1970s he taught photography at the Cooper Union in New York City.
Thomas Wood is an Irish street photographer, portraitist and landscape photographer, based in Britain. Wood is best known for his photographs in Liverpool and Merseyside from 1978 to 2001, "on the streets, in pubs and clubs, markets, workplaces, parks and football grounds" of "strangers, mixed with neighbours, family and friends." His work has been published in several books, been widely shown in solo exhibitions and received awards.
Colin Leslie Westerbeck Jr. is a curator, writer, and teacher of the history of photography.
Christophe Agou was a French documentary photographer and street photographer who lived in New York City. His work has been published in books and is held in public collections. He was a member of the In-Public street photography collective.
Jeff Mermelstein is an American photojournalist and street photographer, known for his work in New York City.
In-Public is an international group of street photographers that operates as a collective. It was established in 2000 by Nick Turpin with the intention of bringing together like minded photographers to hold exhibitions, produce books and conduct workshops and promote street photography.
Nick Turpin is a British street photographer and advertising and design photographer. He is based in London and near Lyon, France.
Blake Andrews is an American street photographer and blogger based in Eugene, Oregon. Andrews was a member of the In-Public street photography collective.
Carolyn Drake is an American photographer based in Vallejo, California. She works on long term photo-based projects seeking to interrogate dominant historical narratives and imagine alternatives to them. Her work explores community and the interactions within it, as well as the barriers and connections between people, between places and between ways of perceiving. her practice has embraced collaboration, and through this, collage, drawing, sewing, text, and found images have been integrated into her work. She is interested in collapsing the traditional divide between author and subject, the real and the imaginary, challenging entrenched binaries.
Matt Stuart (1974) is a British street photographer. He also works as an advertising photographer and leads street photography workshops. Stuart was a member of the In-Public street photography collective.
David Gibson (1957) is a British street photographer and writer on photography. He was a member of the In-Public street photography collective.
Gus Powell (1974) is an American street photographer. He was a member of the In-Public street photography collective.
Format International Photography Festival is a biennial photography festival held in Derby, UK. It takes place in March in various venues in Derby including Quad, University of Derby, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derwent Valley Mills, Market Place and in nearby cities.
John Forrest Harding is a San Francisco–based photographer best known for the color street photography that he has pursued for four decades. Harding is the author of several photography books, and has taught courses on photography at City College of San Francisco and College of Marin.
Peter Kayafas is an American photographer, publisher, and educator based in New York City. He creates black and white photographs that are "simple and spare, yet quietly overpowering with their evocation of a history on a scale beyond that of individual human lives."
Melanie Einzig is an American photographer known for her street photography in and around New York City, where she has lived since 1990. Einzig was a member of the first incarnation of the In-Public street photography collective, from 2002. Her work has been published in the survey publications on street photography, Bystander: A History of Street Photography and Street Photography Now. She has shown in group exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago; Somerset House in London; the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany; and KunstHausWien in Vienna, Austria. The Art Institute of Chicago and Brooklyn Historical Society hold examples of her work in their collections.
Street Photography Now is a survey book of contemporary street photography, edited by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren and published by Thames & Hudson in 2010. It includes work by 56 photographers. Blake Andrews described the book as "the first broad street photography book to be published since Bystander in 1994". Between 2010 and 2012, a series of exhibitions were held in Europe with work from the book.