Recently I was fortunate enough to put on an exhibition at Volcano Theatre on the High Street in Swansea. This was an ideal venue for me as most of my “better” photographs over the last four years were taken there. I also released a 24 image zine to coincide with this.

An A-Level photography student from Coleg Gwent who was researching street photography bought a copy of my zine and contacted me on Instagram with a few questions, here is the dialogue…

Hi Math, I am an A level photography student at Coleg Gwent currently looking at Street Photography. I’ve recently come across your ‘pretty shitty city’ project and I’m inspired by your images! I’ve just purchased the book and I’m excited to see the whole project. I’m writing to ask for some advice and tips.

Amongst the project, which image is your favourite and why?

I went through all the images and thought really hard about this, but it is just impossible for me to choose a single image. I chose the images as a collective to work together - the 24 included in the zine were from a collection of over 120, which hopefully will form the basis of the book for the ‘Pretty Shitty City’ project.

Also I have to admit that I change my mind on how I feel about an image all the time, sometimes I’ll take a shot and instantly fall in love with it, then a few days later I’ll hate the sight of it! Then other times I’ll overlook an image, then months later I’ll come across it again and find that I love it.

Revisiting and reviewing old shoots and photos is definitely something to practice and make a habit of, sometimes images need to sink in and simmer before you are ready to appreciate them.

How much equipment do you take when out shooting?

I try to take out as little as possible when I’m shooting as I’m normally wandering around for several hours. My go to ‘street kit’ includes two cameras, a Ricoh GRii and a Fujifilm XT2 with the Fuji XF 18mm f/2 lens, and also a few spare batteries for each camera.

Do you look for certain situations when shooting or do you just come across them?

For the most part I just wander around aimlessly and shoot anything I find interesting that crosses my path. Sometimes I’ll notice something that I think might develop into an interesting scene so I’ll hang around to see what happens. I feel that setting specific goals or targets in street photography seems a bit unnatural to the nature of the genre, and that sometimes can come through in the images.

Another point to consider is that if I go out to shoot with a certain situation set in my mind and it fails to materialise it just leaves me feeling frustrated and I’ll stop shooting, so I tend to go out with zero expectations and wait to see what the street throws my way.

What camera settings do you mostly use?

I’m not super technical when it comes to my photography, my only aim is to not miss a shot, and with street photography these opportunities come and go within a blink of the eye. So I set my camera/s up to give me the best chance of capturing the photo.

About 90% of the time I’ll shoot in aperture mode between f/8 and f/5.6 and then I will adjust the ISO to make sure the shutter speed stays above 250-200, so I keep with images sharp. Obviously there are always exceptions to the rules and I often experiment with other settings.

Do you have any general tips and advice for street photography?

My main piece of advice is to shoot as much and for as long as possible, it will build up your confidence and of course the more you wander the street the more you will see!