Fact: Instagram isn’t photography. Nor is TikTok. They’re great places to show content — but they’re not good places to be able to grow as a photographer. The chances of your apple tree growing in a field of weeds is very small when everything else around you is sucking up all the nutrients. So, to really make your branches stretch, you should consider looking at photo books. The quiet and solace that they deliver is a wake-up call where you need to sit with your own thoughts and feelings. This is really where photo books help photographers to produce their fruit in the form of images that speak to people in ways they feel deeply. Here are the Best Photo Books for Street Photographers Looking for Inspiration.
If you’re ready to stop wasting time on social media, then dive deeper here with us.
Table of Contents
How We Choose the Best Photo Books for Street Photographers Looking for Inspiration
- The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear we’ve fully reviewed in these roundups.
- If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
- When we test lenses, we’ve got various things in mind. First off, we consider who might want to buy the lens and what they might do with it. With that in mind, we try to tackle at least three genres of photography with that lens in a variety of situations. If the lens has weather resistance, then we’ll test it accordingly with a weather-resistant camera. We also test the autofocus of the lens in continuous mode, single mode, with exposure preview effects, without those effects, and then with all the major image quality parameters. These days, no one really makes a bad lens — but some are far better than others.
- In this specific roundup, we’re basing our findings on the reviews that we’ve done. We’re choosing a favorite, but we’re also giving photographers a bunch of others that they might like, depending on how they shoot.
Our Choice Among the Best Photo Books for Street Photographers Looking for Inspiration: New York Street Diaries by Phil Penman
Photographer Phil Penman has been photographing New York for decades. He shoots in black and white and delivers a timeless look in his images that isn’t really found in the work of other modern photographers. It stems from the fact that he’s always falling in love with what’s around him. In a recent talk, he told an audience about how he works to shoot images that no one else has. And of course, it shows that his work pays off.
In our review, we state:
All of Phil’s photographs are black and white — and in this way, one can see him as a modern archetype for the genre of street photography or black and white work. Page through the book, and you’ll spot incredible photographs that will satisfy several camps of photographers. Fine art photographers will appreciate how Phil plays with light and contrast in his photographs. Street photographers will adore how he captures people through a lens that doesn’t at all seem like a colonial eye to the people of New York — but as a sincere admirer. And most importantly, most of the photographs aren’t split down the middle of the page break. Instead, the images are placed in a way that we can clearly see them, or they’re just vertical images that you want to stare lovingly at.
For Others, These Might be the Best Photo Books for Street Photographers Looking for Inspiration
Phil’s work is amongst our favorites. But if you’re looking for something more classic, then we’ve also reviewed a bunch of other photo books that we think street photographers will find inspiration in.
Jamel Shabazz Albums: Great for Street Portrait Photographers
Jamel Shabazz used to go around and show off his work in physical albums. This book is a recreation of many of said albums. And it contains a lot of beautiful street photographs and portraits.
In our review, we state:
You’re supposed to sit and look at the photographs. And I like that the book is so interactive. Very few photo books make me want to cry, but this one is holistically excellent. Images aren’t split down the middle, and instead you need to physically really interact with the book to make it feel more special.
Elsewhere by Olga Karlovac: In-Camera Movement Meets Street Photography
Olga Karlovac shoots black and white street photography but adds a very unique perspective to her work. She has lots of beautiful photos showing in-camera movement. Elsewhere contains some of those images and much more.
In our review, we said:
That’s to say that Olga’s work isn’t just otherworldly and cosmic; it’s simply imagined and brought into fruition by its creator in a way that very few of us can conjure. Perhaps most importantly, it plays with black and white in a way that we’ve only ever seen otherwise in expensive Taschen books and on handheld device screens. By that, we mean that Elsewhere plays with the idea of dark mode, light mode, and embraces the idea of the expandable spread.
Joel Meyerowitz: A Question of Color Has Lots of Practical Advice
Joel Meyerowitz is one of the photographers who made color photography acceptable in the fine-art world. But beyond the technical questions, he speaks about how he thinks. This book contains lots of advice that you can apply to today’s world.
In our review, we said:
A working photographer has a lot to offer the current generation of shooters, and Joel Meyerowitz: A Question of Color does more than traverse his photographic identity crisis. There are very important nuggets of knowledge that he dishes out.
Vivian Maier Motivates You to Actually Go Shoot
Some of the work of Vivian Maier’s might shock you even more when you consider that she did lots of her work with a TLR. That required her to really slow down when making images. So no, you don’t need to be fast and disappear.
In our review, we said:
If you flip through the pages and read the text, you’ll be in for an aesthetically pleasing experience. First off, none of the images are split down the middle of the fold. This does a lot of respect to her images and makes each photo have its own adequate amount of real estate space. It’s beautiful to behold, and in many ways, it feels like a respectful eulogy to the work she’s done and all the photographers she touched.
Using this Guide to the Best Photo Books for Street Photographers Looking for Inspiration
If you’re considering purchasing anything from this list, consider the following:
- All the product images and sample photos in these roundups are shot by our staff. In fact, we don’t talk about products at length in roundups like this unless we’ve done full reviews of them. But you can surely know that we’ve done all the research ourselves.
- We’d never recommend a product to you that we haven’t tested or that we really didn’t like. You can reference our linked reviews, for more information on this.
Tips on Choosing the Best Photo Books for Street Photographers Looking for Inspiration
We chose these as the best photo books for street photographers looking for inspiration based on a variety of reasons. Part of that requires you to consider what these people are going through and what made them unique. They’re all making work that looks much different from one another. So here’s what you should consider when making a purchase.
- Do you need advice, inspiration, or ideas?
- Page through these books and actually read the text. We recommend doing that with the book slightly propped up and by diffused window lighting.
- Many of these books won our Editor’s Choice awards.