Michael Itkoff, one of the founding editors of Daylight Magazine, is a world traveler and his experience shows in his work.  Street Portraits includes photographs from five different countries and the portraits are as varied as they could possibly be. The subjects range in character from the everyday workingman to the upper class New York City resident.  The lack of women is certainly a bit odd as there are only four female portraits in the book, out of 31 photographs.  No matter, each portrait is an interesting photograph and subject.

The immediate comparisons to Richard Avedon and August Sanders are correct, but Itkoff’s work stands on its own with a strong sense of place and craftsmanship. I am still a bit unsure of the technique; he has a friend/guide stand behind the subject holding a white piece of backdrop material, leaving the friend’s/guide’s hands and sometimes legs and feet exposed in the photograph. As a comparison, Avedon used a van with a big white backdrop attached to make his subject stand out, isolated from the background.  Itkoff allows his subject to be seen within his environment, which I am sure he intended.  It works because, like Sanders work, the subject is part of the environment and the environment part of the subject.

It is not a large book at 6.75”x9.50”, but the images themselves seem bigger, leaving one wanting to see the larger, exhibition prints (measuring 20”x24”), which at that size will certainly allow the viewer to look inside the subject. All in all, this is a terrific little book; it is well edited, conceived and executed.

Buy it here