The Museum of Modern Art describes street photography as “nearly as old as the medium itself, in which photographers seek their subjects on the streets and in public places, aiming to capture candid pictures of people and moments of everyday life.” Pioneers of the medium, such as Alfred Stieglitz, Berenice Abbott and William Eggleston captured major cities like New York and Paris, documenting people, architecture and evolution and distilling moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. At its heart, this is a practice based on chance – and a willingness to act at the right moment. In the 21^st century, the artform has changed. Smartphones have put cameras in everyone’s hands, allow us to capture an image in an instant and share it with the world just as quickly. Yet, the delicate and difficult task of street photography endures, as photographers manage to distil something about our modern world in a single snapshot. Here, we spotlight five street photography exhibitions to see this autumn. 

Helen Levitt is one of the defining voices of 20^th century USA photography. Born in Brooklyn in 1913, she found her principal subject in the streets of New York. From the 1930s onwards, she captured urban life in Harlem and on the Lower East Side, documenting its spontaneity, poetry and irony. Levitt’s true passion is evident in her images of children: their play, spontaneous gestures and chalk drawings, which became a recurring motif of her work. In this latest show at Fotomuseum Winterhur, more than 200 photographs are joined by the documentary short film In the Street (1948), a projection of colour slides and around 115 items of ephemera and archival material, offering audiences an insight into the breadth of her practice. 

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation presents the work of Jamel Habazz, an artist who made the streets of New York his studio during the 1980s, capturing the exuberant creativity of the young generation. His images document the birth of hip-hop culture as well as the importance of friendship, family and community. While his photographs in public space convey a sense of freedom, belonging, and youthful energy, his pictures taken in prisons shed light on futility, marginalisation, and often devastating consequences of social inequality. In these works, too, Shabazz exhibits the same receptiveness and, without depriving them of their dignity, shows people whose biographies are marked by disruptions. 

Selections present a personal display from Alex Webb’s rich and internationally acclaimed body of work. The Magnum photographer once said that: “What does a street photographer do but walk and watch and wait and talk, and then watch and wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown and the secret heart of the known awaits just around the corner.” His work has earned him a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship; Hasselblad Foundation Grant; and a Guggenheim Fellowship, amongst numerous other awards. This exhibition offers a compelling insight into nearly three decades of his colour photography, including from Cuba, Greece, Grenada, India, Haiti and Mexico.

What does it mean to grow up in the digital age? In Social Studies, Lauren Greenfield explores this question through a radical experiment: for over a year, she followed a group of young people from Los Angeles who shared their lives and digital worlds with her: their feeds, texts, posts, images and messages they had never shown their parents. Through photography, installation and immersive environments, the exhibition traces how social media reshapes identity. Giant photo grids turn private posts into public conversation; a personal bedroom installation recreates the chaos of adolescence; and in the algorithm room, visitors step into another person’s feed and experience firsthand how quickly a rabbit hole can open. 

Across seven exhibitions, each with a different theme, 47 photographers take part in the Amateur Photography Club’s annual exhibition, a Reykjavik-based institution first established in 1999. One of the seven chapters, voted on by members, is street scenes. The show draws inspiration from a line by Icelandic writer Indriði G. Þorsteinsson: “Road’s lead in all directions, and on theme will be partings.” This sentiment echoes the essence of street photography – moments encountered in passing, shaped by chance, movement and human presence. Street Scenes celebrates the fleeting, intuitive act of capturing a photograph, presenting images that reveal the subtle narratives unfolding in public spaces. 

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Words: Emma Jacob

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Image Credits:

1. Jamel Shabazz, The Flatbush Crew, Flatbush, Brooklyn, NYC 1983 © Jamel Shabazz. Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen, Cologne.
2. Helen Levitt, New York, 1976 © Film Documents LLC, courtesy Zander Galerie, Cologne.
3. Jamel Shabazz, Rolling Partners, Downtown, Brooklyn, NYC 1982 © Jamel Shabazz. Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen, Cologne.
4. Image courtesy of Alex Webb.
5. © Lauren Greenfield / Fahey Klein Gallery
6. ©Jón Bjarnason, Havana-Cuba, 2022.