Think of this book as Street Photography for Dummies. It provides a suitable introduction for those with no background, or those who have just started and may be curious about some of the problems they have encountered in their practice. Anyone interested in topics of art, aesthetics, history, or philosophy should look elsewhere.
As befitting an introductory text, it has been designed for the least informed audience. Each page is a self-contained topic, with little chunks of text and lots of images. It's like a book made from a slide show. Fortunately, page design and image selection is quite good, so even if you don't get much from the text, it looks good and has quite a high quotient of interesting images. Topics covered include practical matters of practice, such as how to dress and behave when photographing strangers on the street, camera selection, subject matter, location, and composition, among others. By far the best section is the gallery of photographers that makes up the last quarter of the book.
Regarding the manifesto, it is fairly well summarized in the title: any camera, anywhere. Nagar subscribes to a democratic conception of street photography in which no special technology is required and in which all subjects are image worthy, though at one point she makes the rather exaggerated claim of street photography being a way of life. I wonder what that might entail?
Tanya Nagar is a 20-something, London-based amateur photographer. You can read an interview with her here.
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