Through The Looking Glass

For this particular blog I’ve decided to take you back to my “street photography” days circa 2020 through 2024 where I would make regular visits to London, attempting (very much the operative description) to create a more aesthetic imagery style of this particular genre of photography.

Why “street photography” and why London asked nobody ever ? - well, photojournalism delivered by means of colour supplement magazines that came as part of the Sunday newspapers back in the 1960’s and through the 1970’s was a big thing, the articles in these supplements were often about people and a place, they often described by means of words & imagery the human condition, the divide of North & South UK, a great example of this type of work is ‘The North of England’ (in colour) by John Bulmer which was a Sunday Times supplement and anybody keen on photography couldn’t help but be drawn in by the power of this type of work, also bear in mind back in this era photojournalism was a profession you’d aspire to be part of, thus my interest of photojournalism/documentary/street photography (call it what we will) was embeded.

Why London and the fascination of ? - you can lose yourself in a big city, it’s quite easy to go largely un-noticed with a camera, it’s (mostly) non-threatening, there’s variety around every corner - about the only time I ever wandered my own city with a camera I stood out like a plague victim and felt immediately (and obviously) intimidated being shouted out by some chap who didn’t like the look of me.

Over the decades since the 1970’s photography has changed, attitudes have changed, photojournalism barely exists - my own view (rightly or wrongly) is that the over zealous paparazzi prevalent by the mid 80’s and more than over-bearing through the 90’s gave photography such a tarnished reputation nobody wanted to be anywhere near it and let alone consider a career in it, by the 2000’s we were digital anyway.

Street photography has always been a thing, and over the decades much as attitudes have changed so has street photography and the definitions thereof - what was once maybe seen as the recording (documenting) of life on the street with narrative in either candid or composed style we now have observational (the moment) street photography and also aesthetic (the artistic & painterly) street photography - all 3 styles exist, co-exist and mix (sometimes) and whilst ideally are performed in a candid fashion (the pure definition) there’s also accepted deviation from this, the obvious example being ‘street portraiture’

Having had a dabble at all 3 styles, albeit the documenting style being my more recent, I feel I'm well qualified to state I’m not particularly gifted at any but I enjoy attempting (in the participation) all of them - the observational (catching the moment) I’d argue is the most challenging as you need perseverance & patience in heavy doses, you can walk all day and for days upon end and nothing really happens, when it does and that ‘unusual in the usual’ presents itself for that never to be repeated moment you need to be ready, hence why I’ve stated in the other blog article about the successful strike rate of this style being something of the order approximating 5 per annum at best.

The aesthetic style which touches into the more artistic and often quoted ‘painterly’ look is more of a relaxed mode, you can usually find your place/location and let the subjects come to you (if those subjects are human) or seek out your location/place and wait for the light to hit it right (in the case of non-human subjects) or of course wait for both case scenarios to be optimum !

One project I engaged on during my aesthetic phase was the obfuscation provided by glass, I found it to be a fascinating layer that when introduced into an image could have at times quite striking effects - the windows in some of London’s old style public houses lend themselves rather nicely to this, it’s a win-win situation especially if you’re inside looking out with drink at hand.

The below are a selection of some of my more considered attempts over the years.