Over nearly eight decades, Louis Stettner (1922-2016) defined a
singular poetic vision in photography, honing a style influenced by both
American street photography and French humanism. Stettner began working
in the 1930s, becoming a member of the Photo League in New York and
befriending Lisette Model, Paul Strand, and Weegee. After serving in the
U.S. Army as a combat photographer, he moved to Paris in 1947, where he
met the influential street photographer Brassai. The following decades
were the most important in his career, as he traveled back and forth
between Paris and New York and found inspiration in that geographical
duality.


Published to celebrate a major acquisition of Stettner's prints by
the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, this beautiful volume presents
iconic photographs from the entirety of Stettner's career, along with 19
essays about photography written by Stettner himself, originally
published in the iconic magazine Camera 35 from 1971 to 1979,
as well as a transcription of Stettner's fundamental lecture,
"Photography: Style & Reality," delivered at the International
Center of Photography in 2002.