As the book demonstrates, street photography is now a wide and eclectic genre. Styles differ, from the elegant, minimalist black-and-white shots of British photographer David Gibson (which often feature a single person) to the colorful cacophony of work by Raghu Rai, who captures what he calls “the ocean of life, churning day in, day out” in India. Sometimes, the images reveal things about a particular culture, like Michael Wolf’s pictures of food hung out to dry on wire fences and hangers in Hong Kong (“When people don’t have enough space, they improvise and adapt,” Wolf writes). At other times, the photographers seem to want to observe human nature in general, captured on the run (literally, in Jeff Mermelstein’s images of people running along the streets of New York) in all of its unself-conscious glory.
     Voyeuristic? Sure. In some cases — such as Martin Parr’s satirical images of the wealthy — it can border on the cruel. Other bodies of work — Christophe Agou’s portraits of subway riders for instance — seem deeply humanistic. But in an age of staged images and Photoshop, street photography does come across as an impressively pure and unmediated art. As British photographer Nick Turpin says, “With no filters, no fancy lenses, no lights or models, street photographers have nothing to hide behind.” With its forty-six beautiful portfolios and thoughtful statements by all of the contributors, Street Photography Now makes a persuasive case for the continuing importance of the genre.