Hot on the heels of last week’s interview is another - this time with Dan Waller. Dan has been on numerous workshops with me - the last two being the ‘Monochrome Masterclass’ in Venice. As a result of those workshops, Dan has self-published a book and below is his story.

Every so often I come across someone whose work really interests me and today’s newsletter is dedicated to one of my workshop clients, street photographer Barbara Progscha. Based in Bavaria, Germany, Barbara has an interesting style, mostly based on monochrome. I interviewed her about her work and this is what she had to say . . .

I get quite a few people on workshops who shoot street photography with a Leica Q/Q2/Q3 which all have a fixed 28mm (full-frame) lens - and a small number of people who use a 28mm (18mm crop sensor) on other cameras such as the Ricoh. But there are things to consider.

My latest street photography zine has just been published and it’s now available to purchase from a limited edition print run of 100 copies. Bologna, a vibrant Italian town and capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, is one of my all-time favourite cities. The zine is a personal collection of images, all shot during a very hot week in July. It’s a mixture of street and travel photography - no particular theme, just a personal perspective.

Bologna is a terrific city - for culture, food, weather, hospitality - and street photography. The images below were taken on our summer holiday (not, I was sternly informed, a ‘street photography trip’) - so I didn’t have much time for street photography in Bologna. These images, therefore, are a combination of street photography and travel photography.

I love photographing the major political events such as the General Election. At such an event, we have a window of two days, during which we should be able to gather enough material together for a project: the day of the election itself and ‘results day’.

My books are available directly from me and from bookshops and online retailers across the land. If you’re outside the UK, you may be interested to know that they are also available in numerous translations across the world from Amazon. With overseas shipping costs escalating, you may find this the most cost-effective way to buy the books if you’re based abroad.

In case you hadn’t heard about it, a great new street photography magazine is coming your way in a few weeks. Called ‘Klick’, this will contain articles and images sent in by talented and dedicated street photographers - it’s truly a community driven publication. Issue 1 has 100+ pages, 50+ images and 14 original articles ranging from street tips, reviews, success stories, discussion points and much more.

I’m sure you’ll be aware that film is making a comeback, in a similar way that records have done in the music world. Street photography has never really lost its analogue roots (I’m happy to say) and there has been an uptick in technological development in recent years - in respect of both cameras and film.

Do you shoot the streets of Dublin? Have you ever done so? Having spent a long weekend in this fine city last month, it’s a location I can thoroughly recommend. The first ever Dublin Street Photography Festival took place in early May, featuring an extensive exhibition of work by a host of international and Irish photographers and lectures, workshops and guided photo walks over the four four days.

This is a question I’m often asked. Both are great cameras for street photography and there’s no right or wrong answer to the ‘which one should I buy?’ question - it really comes down to personal preference and taste. However, this article in Amateur Photographer magazine offers a pretty good analysis and it may help with your decision making . . .

The summer months are always a busy time of year in the world of street photography workshops but I have a couple of unexpected places available on workshops this week . . .

I’ve been visiting Venice as a photographer for many years – and it’s mostly for street or documentary photography. Once you get away from San Marco, Rialto and the tourist ‘yellow routes’, it’s a street photography wonderland. Night or day, monochrome or colour, winter or summer – Venice has it all. Whether it’s the amazing light, the characters, the architecture, the quirkiness or the characters, Venice delivers.

My personal Leica Q3 is for sale. Condition is near mint. It’s very low mileage and has had an easy life (the other owner used it twice and I’ve used it rarely). Just for transparency there’s a small nick on the metal lens hood (see pic) and a very feint hairline surface scratch on the top place (barely noticeable and too insignificant to photograph). Everything is in 100% perfect working order and it's not much different to a new camera.

I don’t take many of my own images when I’m running a workshop but I do try to build in a few days either side of the workshop for my own personal shooting. These images are from my Lisbon street photography workshop in May 2024.

I’ve just published my latest street photography zine and this one’s all about Shoreditch. Called ‘The Ditch’, the project spans several years of shooting the streets of east London’s vibrant and colourful Shoreditch neighbourhood.

We all have pictures we’re particularly pleased with and I find it interesting that this pleasure sometimes comes long after taking the picture. Here’s a case in point . . . .

You may have noticed that I’ve been absent from YouTube for a couple of months - all due to the pressures of work. I’m still a ‘photographer’ rather than a ‘YouTuber’ and things like four Venice trips, a tranche of London workshops and the Photography Show all had to come before video creation. However . . . .

Is it worth the hype? Is it worth buying? I'm no longer a Fujifilm ambassador so I have no skin in the game and I’m completely unbiased - but Fujifilm has lent me one of these cameras to try for a month or two. I'm not going to use the word 'review' or 'test' here - because I don't believe I'm qualified to review or test a camera and I certainly won't be boring you with lots of tedious techy info - I'll just give you my initial thoughts.

Coming up in May we have the Dublin Street Photography Festival, where you’ll see some big international names exhibiting their work - Gustavo Minas, Matt Stuart, Olga Karlovac, Tatsuo Suzuki, Melissa O’Shaunessy and me!