Book Review: Streets of the World

Streets can reveal a lot about a destination and a culture. They tell stories of people who live there, presently and in the past; they reveal a culture’s food, music, art and architecture; and each one has its own story.

“The street is a meeting place, a platform of crowds, a centre of news and gossips, the working spot of salesman and prostitutes, the playground of their children, the ultimate enemy of solitude and anonymity,” explains journalist, writer and historian Mark Blaisse.

© Jeroen Swolfs

Dutch photographer Jeroen Swolfs traveled to more than 200 countries over seven years, in search of “that one street in each place — sometimes by a harbor or a railway station — that comprised the country as a whole.” He compiled the imagery and memories of these streets into a unique photo book called Streets of the World.

Each beautiful image in this extraordinary book conveys “the culture, colors, rituals, maybe even the history of the city and country where he found them.” In addition to photos, the book includes personal anecdotes and infographics on geography, literacy, religion, language, street food and more. As “the artery of the city and of life itself,” the photographed streets in this book are meant to pull us out of our narcissistic microcosms, and to remind us what and who is out there and of the power of human connection across different cultures and backgrounds.

When he started the book in 2006 in Chisianu, Moldova, Swolfs decided to use one technique to capture every image compiled in his book. Because the book is about unity and connection, he conveys the same feeling by always using the same camera angle, point of view and aperture value in each photo. These photos are then broken down into chapters by continent, and from there into several cities.

As I worked my way through the book, I found myself lost in the photos, losing all track of time. They’re raw and emotional, at times beautiful, at other times, dark and sad. In Oceania and Asia, I scanned Mongolian herdsmen, Malaysian street food vendors, Singapore night markets, New Zealand fitness fanatics, a game of airstrip volleyball in Tuvalu, a historic center for booksellers in Iraq and the sun-drenched buildings of Oman.

© Jeroen Swolfs

In South America, you’ll find images of traditional Bolivian clothing, street dancers protesting traffic pollution in Ecuador and kids walking home from school with sun umbrellas in Guyana.

In North America, people dress up for church in the Bahamas; fisherman prepare to sell in Antigua and Barbuda; tourists jump into the beautiful blue water in Barbados; and people play street soccer in Costa Rica. In Ottawa, diversity is embraced and outside influences are welcomed; and in Washington, D.C., people in suits and ties lounge on the grass for lunch.

In Europe, mountains surround a pristine street in Andorra; horse-drawn carriages move past grand buildings in Vienna; peaceful protests unfurl in Brussels; families happily play near a fountain in Copenhagen; people enjoy the rare warm weather at a market in Helsinki; Parisians sip wine in a private park behind the Sacré Coeur; a whale ship departs in Reykjavik; and a couple gets married on the iconic Charles Bridge in Prague.

“In other words: the street is everything. The street is us, is me, is you,” said Blaisse.

The book is available online, on Amazon and at select bookstores, and it’s also an exhibition currently in Amsterdam and moving to Copenhagen at the end of this month.