A Leg-up at Dawstown
The man in the blue jacket has both hands on the jockey’s left boot, mid heave, and number 37 is halfway between earth and saddle. It’s neither one place nor the other. I love the awkward physics of a leg-up. It looks ungainly until you remember it’s the only sensible way to get a small,…
The Hen Party in Full Stride
I caught this one on a warm Saturday night in Katowice a few years ago. Somewhere on the Mariacka strip where every other doorway is a bar and the pavement is essentially a parade route. Five women in a loose flying-V, the bride-to-be in white on the right with a tiara, a veil and a…
Three on the Sand at Foz do Lizandro
Foz do Lizandro is one of those beaches where the Atlantic doesn’t let you forget it’s the Atlantic. Even on a bright spring day, the surf comes in heavy and the water is properly cold. I caught this little scene from up the beach: mum framing the wave on her phone, dad watching, holding a…
The Diego Effect at Bantry Market
You can tell a dog has just walked past by the geometry of the smiles. Two heads turning at the same angle, the kid in the patterned fleece still oblivious, a smoothie stall behind them advertising Mango Mix and Berry Bliss like it’s any other Friday. Diego is a small chihuahua and entirely unaware that…
Pop Art and Pocket Screens
Daniel Buren’s wall at Tottenham Court Road does most of the work for you. It’s fifty feet of saturated circles and diamonds, all bouncing off those merciless black-and-white stripes. I just had to wait. Two strangers soon obliged: he slumped against a blue diamond mid-text, and she tucked into a green circle taking what looked…
Flamenco Frills on a Valencian Pavement
Valencia in late October had just been rinsed by a quick shower, and the pavement was still glossy when this little party walked past me. The two women had gone all-in on the traje de flamenca. The ruffles stacked like waves, fresh blooms pinned into their hair, and a peach-coloured shawl folded neatly over one…
Hen-do detour through Gerrard Street
I caught these two coming out of the crush on Gerrard Street, London, last summer. The blonde in the GANNI tee looks like she’s mid-anecdote; her friend, in a white off-shoulder dress with a tiny veil pinned over a leopard headband, has the slightly stunned grin of someone three hours into a hen weekend and…
Brooms and a Brolly
A London street sweeper, fully kitted out in orange hi-vis, has parked his cart, bristling with upright brooms like some sort of municipal hedgehog, outside the Brompton Oratory and is holding a big black umbrella over himself for shade. It was roasting that day. Umbrellas aren’t just for the rain. They are very useful portable…
The Quiet One on the Bench
A man on a bench at Coventry station, fully absorbed in his newspaper while everyone else strides past with suitcases and rucksacks, making for the platform. He’s wearing a shirt, shorts, and a shoulder bagwhose strap cuts across his chest. A huge Paul Hollywood stares down from an advert for the “only baking book you’ll…
When a Building Came Down
August 2009, Castle Street in Cork. A building that had been under renovation gave up and came down, taking a chunk of the terrace with it and flattening a silver Peugeot 206 that had the misfortune ofbeing parked on the pavement. The roof is caved in like a tin can someone stood on, with a…
Elvis the Taxi Driver
Derry “Elvis” Coughlan is a local taxi driver in Cork. Here he was on St. Patrick’s Street in 2021. He was walking towards an older man with bags of shopping who would probably need a lift home. I don’t think I’ve seen Derry around since then. Not someone who appears to have an online presence…
A chance match in Catalonia
I spotted her first, then the bush, then the coincidence. Walking through Palafrugell one July afternoon, I saw this lady carrying her shopping bag back from the market. I kept the frame cropped tight: no face, just arm, fabric, and the tanned, weathered hand holding a shopping bag off to the side. This is probably…