Stephen McLaren

This critically engaging anthology explores the ways in which photographers from across the globe are viewing the complicated dynamics of family life. The book is divided into two parts: 'Our Own Families' and 'Other People's Families'. Each section includes an essay, analysing the complex attachments between brothers and sisters, parents and children, step-families and in-laws, outcasts and adoptees. Around forty international photographers are interviewed and present their individual pictures, albums and archives, many never previously published in book form. Whether Birte Kaufman's award-winning images of Irish travellers, Magnum member Trent Parke's darkly amusing shots of his family in suburban Australia, Nadia Sablin's elegy to her elderly aunts living in rural Russia, or Elina Brotherus' devastating records of failed IVF, this book takes readers on powerful journeys and enables them to reflect on how they photograph their own families.

Ambitious in scope, democratic in nature, Magnum Streetwise is an unmissable tour through the photographs and practices that have helped define what street photography is and can be. Magnum photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson pioneered 'modern' concepts of street photography before the term was even coined. But their influence is far from historic. A rich seam of street photography runs through the heart of Magnum to this day, both in the work of recognized masters of street photography - such as Erwitt, Parr, Gilden and Kalvar - and of those who might not even consider themselves street photographers; a continued influence that has not gone unnoticed among the current generation of budding street photographers and fans. Magnum Streetwise is a true visual feast, interleaving insightful texts and anecdotes within an intuitive blend of photographer- and theme-based portfolios, exploring not only the work of outstanding photographers, but how common subject matter (places of leisure, marketplaces, travel) and locations (Paris, New York, Tokyo) have been addressed, conceptually and practically, across the agency and through the ages. Magnum Streetwise is an essential addition to the bibliography of street photography, showcasing hidden gems alongside many of the genre's most famous images.