The proliferation of Instagram-ready smartphones has been both a boon
and a detriment to the art of street photography. On one hand, it has
brought about a renewed interest in the innovators and pioneers of the
genre—people like Eugène Atget, who is widely considered the godfather
of the genre, or Henri Cartier-Bresson, who had a knack for catching
people at the exact moment they did something interesting. On the other
hand, it has convinced many wannabe shooters that anyone with a working
cell phone and a decent filtering app has the ability to capture
something beautiful. And maybe they’re right. But it doesn’t change the
fact that there’s an art to this art, and that some folks are just more in tune with the rhythm of street photography than others.
Compiling any sort of “list” is always a challenging task, as the nature
of being constrained by a number will inevitably mean that plenty of
deserving talents will be left off (at least for this year). And when it
comes to the 50 photographers featured here, we aimed to be as
all-encompassing as possible; no restrictions were set in terms of
geography, age, style, or experience. The only adamant criterion is that
the artist is currently contributing to the craft.
