I'm visiting West Bromwich to see the superb Caravan Gallery exhibition, part of the 'Blast!' photography festival. Walking through the town centre I take the opportunity to explore the market areas. They are bustling, vibrant and full of colour.
I love street photography. It provides so many opportunities to speak to strangers and listen to their stories for an all too brief moment. West Bromwich proves to be particularly friendly. I'm called across by a lovely group of Sikh gentlemen sitting on two rows of benches in the middle of King's Square. They allow me to take their photographs and their sense of community is just so refreshing.
The homework this week for my MAC group is 'Street Photography', a genre I adore. People - their face, their bodies, their speech, their mannerisms - are utterly fascinating. Everyone has a special story to tell as I discovered yet again during a brief foray onto the rain-soaked streets of Solihull.
Along the way I met a lady getting ready for her son's marriage in Cardiff, a young woman due to give birth to her first child any day now, a gentleman sipping a cup of coffee who wanted to talk about his new camera and a Big Issue seller.
Is this street photography or street portraiture? I neither know nor care - but what I am sure is that I was blessed to hear all these wonderful stories and take a few idle snaps. Hope you enjoy them.
The streets of Norwich, a thousand passing souls walking, sitting, eating, snoozing in the midday sun. Paint dries, a random woolen jumper stuffed into a stone alcove, faces and reflections glimpsed in windows as time streams by.
