Open City brings together the work of 19 artists and photographers, spanning half a century, to chart the history and development of the street photograph - it contains 120 colour and black & white plates. The survey takes as its starting point the raw and edgy photographs produced by artists such as Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, William Klein and Lee Friedlander, who were instrumental in the development of a radical, new approach to documentary photography. For these and subsequent artists, the street has continued to hold an inherent fascination as a theatre of human activity.

Open City reflects the diversity of work that the street has inspired, ranging from Terence Donovan's advertising and fashion photography, to Susan Meiselas's photographs of war-torn Nicaragua, and Raghubir Singh's vibrant and colourful images of his native India. The work of a newer generation of artists also features in this book, including Catherine Opie, Nikki S. Lee, Beat Streuli, and Turner Prize 2000 winner Wolfgang Tillmans.

Open City includes essays by curators Russell Ferguson and Kerry Brougher, exploring the historical roots of street-based photographic practice, and the way in which artists have continued to react to, and develop upon, the tradition of the street photograph.