The authors of this book invented photojournalism as they roamed through London creating this book, which was first published in 1878, with Thomson taking pictures and Smith interviewing and writing about the poor people they met on the streets. Smith wrote that, by talking to the poor in this same way,

"Dickens acquired his marvellous stores of material and knowledge of the people. Exaggerated as some of his characters may seem, their prototypes are constantly coming on the scene."

You will see that he was right when you read this book and meet a host of Dickensian characters such as:...

Street Life in London (1877-78), by journalist Adolphe Smith and photographer John Thomson, aimed to reveal by the innovative use of photography and essays the conditions of a life of poverty in London. Now regarded as a pioneering photo-text and a foundational work of socially conscious photography - "one of the most significant and far-reaching photobooks in the medium's history" (The Photobook: A History) - Street Life in London failed to achieve commercial success in its own time. In this groundbreaking book, we see the start, but not the conclusion, of a conversation between text and...