Street photography : from Atget to Cartier-Bresson

We cite from the cover: --
"Street photography is perhaps the best-loved and most widely known of all photographic genres, with names like Cartier-Bresson, Brassai and Doisneai familiar to those with even a fleeting knowledge of the medium. Yet what exactly is street photography? --
From what viewpoint does it present its subjects and how does this viewpoint differ from that of documentary photography? Looking closely at the work of Atget, Kertész, Bovis, René-Jacques, Brassai, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and more, this elegantly written book, extensively illustrated with both well-known and neglected works, unpicks Parisian street photography's affinity with Impressionist art as well as its complex relationship with parallel literary trends and authors from Baudelaire to Philippe -/ Soupault. Clive Scott traces street photography's origins, asking what really happened to photography when it first abandoned the studio, and brings to the fore fascinating questions about the way the street photographer captures or frames those subjects -traders, lovers, entertainers - so beloved of the genre. In doing so Scott reveals street photography to be an inventive, even poetic vision, looking not to the type but to the individual, not to the 'reality' of the street but to its 'romar --
Clive Scott is Professor of European Literature in the School of Literature and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia. His books include The Spoken Image: Photography and Language (1999) and most recently. Translating Rimbaud's 'Illuminations' (2006)."-