Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography

The street allows photographers to conceal cameras and catch subjects unaware, in informal settings. By contrast, the studio permits both photographers and subjects to present carefully composed images to the world through elaborate staging and technical tricks. In recent years, with celebrities posing in the street and the studio being used for more informal, intimate shots, both traditions have undergone a transformation.

This stunning collection features many of the greatest street hotographers of all time—Atget, Brassai, Cartier-Bresson, Arbus, Frank, as well as studio-based artists such as Carlo Ponti, Edward Steichen, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, and Jurgen Teller. Street and Studio provides a revealing look at the history of photography through the contrasts and tensions between these two traditions. Insightful and engaging essays by leading critics explore how the images these photographers have produced have conditioned the way we see both the modern city and ourselves.