David Gibson’s Talk on the Street is a limited-edition sort-of retrospective of the InPublic founding member’s work over a 25 year period or so. I snapped up a copy largely for fomo reasons, and partly because Gibson shares little reminiscences and thoughts about each picture, so it’s another in my sub-collection of photobooks that use text.
Edit: I’ve either completely lost my touch and interest, or for whatever reason, I’m not really getting out of bed for street photography like I did in the early 2010s. Rather than continue to let this “review” languish in the drafts, here are my not-worth-reading thoughts on this excellent, limited edition, already long sold out, celebratory retrospective of Gibson’s fantastic work.
At first viewing—in the flip-through portion of the video—I was sort unconvinced. After some careful viewing and a longer read-through, though, I got it: Gibson is a Street Photographer’s street photographer, and he knows his stuff inside and out. The work is top notch, right in there with the best of InPublic, and Gibson’s thoughts on his process, working methods, and reminiscences of particular images are a fascinating read.
Sadly, Talk on the Street was sold out before I even received my copy. I’m privileged to have one, and by the time you read this my copy will be back in the fancy zip-loc bag it arrived sealed in, and back on the shelves with some of his contemporaries and, perhaps, friends.
Unrated.
I make a practice of not rating limited edition and sold out books that only scalpers try to sell. Hopefully, Gibson and Eyeshot will put out a trade version, maybe a soft-cover, or at least one without the fancy, sealed bag. And, no, my copy is not for sale. Its value plummeted the second I tore the seal off the bag, and even though I kept that bit of plastic and preserved it in the bag, alongside the fantastic book.
I can’t seem to find a website, but here’s a link to Gibson’s Instagram. If you visit his page specifically, you can avoid all the ads! w00t!
Edit 2: in my rush to just push this out, I started hunting around the internets, reading little scraps of interviews and whatnot. Come to find out, Gibson was one of the editors of the classic Street Photography Now book and I thought I had a copy, but ends up I don’t. I remember Eric Kim and others fawning over it at the time, and it was years before I started collecting photobooks, so I didn’t buy a copy immediately. Given the Now in the title was, at time of writing, 15 years ago, I’m not rushing to bookfinder to find one. Anyway.
In the 2010s, Gibson wrote or edited a handful of books about street photography: 2011 saw the aforementioned Street Photography Now, as well as London Street Photography 1860-2010, an exhibition at the Museum of London; The Street Photographer’s Manual (2014); 100 Great Street Photographs (2017); and Street Photography: A History in 100 Iconic Images (2019). All are readily available and… shocker: I didn’t (yet) buy any of them.
Why not? Well… where 2012-2014 James thought he wanted to walk the streets with a camera hunting for and stumbling across great shots, the last decade has taught me that I’d rather sit in the air conditioning and watch YouTube or whatever. All the street photography looking and thinking I did back then, though, informs my photographs at parties and things, and I’m happy I spent that time following Erik Kim and friends. (And I’m especially happy I learned of Charlie Kirk and scored a copy of Katil Var… ends up, they’re still available too… If you want some fantastic black & white Street Photography, look no further.)
Anyway. I guess I had more to say than I thought… not much of it about David Gibson or his great book, but at least I still got it!
