Joel Meyerowitz: How I Make Photographs review: Learn from one of street photography's greatest photographers

There are few photographers whose advice I trust as instinctively as Joel Meyerowitz. His work, from the early color-drenched New York streets to the serene Tuscany landscapes, has always been rooted in clarity of seeing. How I Make Photographs continues that legacy. Published as part of Laurence King’s Masters of Photography series, it is a compact but remarkably generous guide, distilling decades of working knowledge into concise lessons on how to look, how to move, and how to remain open to the world in front of your lens.

Where many ‘how-to’ books lean heavily on technical instruction, this one teaches photography as a way of being, a vital part of books on street photography. Meyerowitz writes with the warmth of someone who has spent a lifetime paying attention, and his reflections seamlessly integrate practice, philosophy, and lived experience into something much more valuable than a checklist of tips. It reads, in many ways, like a conversation with one of the greats.

Publisher information

Price and availability

Joel Meyerowitz: How I Make Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz is available in hardback from all major retailers, priced around $21.99 / £14.99; however, it is often on sale for much lower.

Review

What stands out immediately is Meyerowitz’s ability to turn experience into actionable insight without ever diluting its complexity. His opening chapters on ‘Be Inspired’ and ‘Embrace the everyday’ set the tone. Photography, for him, begins long before the shutter is pressed. He emphasises receptiveness, rhythm, and the simple act of noticing. As someone who spends a great deal of time shooting in the streets, I found these early pages surprisingly energising and wholly inspiring. They re-aligned me with the fundamentals and the why of shooting on the street.

The book is structured into short, focused chapters, each a principle Meyerowitz has carried through his career. Composition, color, gesture, pacing, and the emotional charge of a scene are all addressed with the directness of someone who genuinely wants you to improve. His language is clear and unpretentious, and the advice is rooted in real practice rather than abstraction. He is not instructing you to chase perfect moments; he is teaching you how to become more receptive to them.

The strongest parts of the book, for me, are the chapters on light and the choice of color or black and white. Meyerowitz’s relationship with color – he was one of the earliest advocates for colour as a serious artistic medium in the 1960s – is foundational to modern street photography. Here, he explains how he learned to follow the color, how light informs atmosphere, and how slowing down allows color and gesture to reveal themselves. These sections feel particularly valuable for anyone who leans heavily on black and white; they remind you of how strategically expressive colour can be when treated as a compositional force rather than an afterthought.

His guidance on timing and responsiveness is equally insightful. Meyerowitz has always been a photographer of movement, the fluid energy of a street in motion. He articulates how to anticipate rather than react, how to stay loose, how to work around a subject rather than pounce on it. These are techniques that are hard to teach, yet he manages to make them feel legible and learnable.

The production of the book enhances all this. The layout is uncluttered, images are used meaningfully, and every principle is paired with an example from his archive. It’s a format that avoids overwhelm while offering plenty of material to revisit. As with all the Laurence King titles, the sequencing is tight and considered; each chapter builds logically on the last without ever lecturing. It is the perfect book for dipping in and out of.

What I appreciate most is the humility in the writing. Meyerowitz never positions himself as a master instructing novices from a pedestal. Instead, he returns repeatedly to curiosity. The same curiosity that pushed him onto 1960s Fifth Avenue with a camera and no roadmap. For a book dedicated to teaching, it retains a sense of discovery.

Final thoughts

How I Make Photographs succeeds because it refuses to split photography into technique and philosophy; it sees them as inseparable. It’s a book I find myself wanting to keep in my bag because it’s a reminder of what matters when we’re out making pictures. Whether you’re new to street photography or experienced and looking to refresh your instincts, Meyerowitz’s voice is a steady guide. It is generous, insightful, and rooted in a lifetime of seeing well.

Most practical guides teach mechanics. This one teaches perception. That distinction is what makes the book so enduring.

Alternatives

Find Your Frame: A Street Photography Masterclass by Craig Whitehead: at Amazon

An exceptional guide and entrypoint into shooting street photography by photographer Craig Whitehead. Find Your Frame delves into theory, practical tips, and technical details, all skills vital for a street photographer's tool kit.

Saul Leiter: The Centennial Retrospective by Saul Leiter: at Amazon

Created in collaboration with the Saul Leiter Foundation, this definitive monograph brings together the diverse yet interconnected bodies of work of one of the best street photographers of all time.