[THOMSON, John, and Adolphe SMITH. Street Life in London… with Permanent Photographic Illustrations Taken From Life Expressly for This Publication. N.p. but: London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, n.d. but circa 1877]. 4to (264 x 196mm.) 37 Woodbury-type photographic plates mounted on 36 leaves with tissue-guards, captioned titles in red to each plate with red-ruled borders. (Missing title page, occasional finger-marks, minor soiling, some creasing to tissue-guards, spotting to front and rear pastedowns.) Original blue half-morocco, gilt title to spine (rubbing to all extremities, minor surface loss to lower cover). Note: having been one of the first western travellers to photograph the Far East, John Thomson retuned to London and teamed up with the radical journalist Adolphe Smith. From 1876 to 1877 they published a monthly magazine called 'Street Life in London' and this volume is the first publication in book form of that work. It was a pioneering publication that established social documentary as one of the first forms of photojournalism.