Little England - A day in Weymouth with the Leica M10

Originating from a small Midlands town and subsequently moving down south and now to the south coast in Brighton, there is a natural allure for me for the traditional British seaside town.

I actually remember going to Weymouth from the Midlands with the family when I was a wee lad.

There's a version of England that still exists in places like our seaside towns. Not the version that gets argued about online, or invoked on political platforms, or turned into a slogan. The quieter version. The one that just gets on with it.

I drove down to Weymouth yesterday morning, with the Leica M10 and no real agenda beyond walking and seeing what the town had to say, as Spring 2026 has opened its eyes. Weymouth is a proper south coast seaside town — the kind with a working harbour, Georgian terraces starting to show their age, a pink cake shop that takes cash only, and Union Jacks outside the pub.

"This blog post isn't a political statement, it's an observation. The flags are just there — unremarkable to the people who live under them, which is precisely what makes them worth photographing."

I've been thinking about this project for a while. There's something I keep noticing in the English seaside towns I shoot — a particular kind of texture that's hard to name but immediately recognisable. Old shopfronts that haven't been rebranded. Red postboxes with knitted toppers. Phone boxes repurposed into book exchanges. Ghost signs on brick walls advertising things that no longer exist. All of it quietly persisting, not out of defiance, just out of habit.

Weymouth has it in abundance.

I started on the high street. The first image that stopped me was almost too on-the-nose: a red figure hunched on a bench beside a red postbox and a red phone box — now a book exchange — with Betfred blazing blue in the background. Three reds and a betting shop. England in a single frame.

A few streets away I found the postbox with the knitted Union Jack draped over its top — someone had crocheted a topper decorated with poppies and the flag, placed it there quietly, and moved on. It was the most tender thing I photographed all day. There's a whole tradition of this in small British towns — anonymous acts of civic affection that never make the news and probably shouldn't.

The cobbled lane down toward the harbour was one of those streets that photographs itself. Late morning light, deep shadows on one side, a Union Jack snapping at the far end where the sea opens up, a woman sitting alone outside the pub with a coffee. I stood at the top of it for a while before I pressed the shutter, waiting for it to settle into itself.

"There's a whole tradition of anonymous acts of civic affection in small British towns that never make the news and probably shouldn't."

The pink cake shop — I later found out it's called The Pink — was doing serious business. Cash only, Lardy Cakes, Chelsea Buns, Flapjack, Pies and Pasties. The window was covered in handwritten labels. Outside, a small crowd had gathered. Dogs, prams, people craning to see the shelves. Beside it, a teal gift shop. The high street as pure, unapologetic colour.

But for all the bunting and bakeries, Weymouth isn't performing anything. It's just getting on with being itself — which includes the parts that aren't picturesque.

On a back street I found a junction box with FREE sprayed on it in white paint, set against a crumbling stone wall. Two streets over, a black utility box covered in peeling stickers, one of them a torn Union Jack with the words "of British" still legible. Whatever the full message was, only those two words remained. I stared at it for a long time.

Surplus International next to Subway. A "Loading Only" bay that cars were parked in. Charity Site painted in white letters on the seafront tarmac, a Ferris wheel beyond it. The ordinary machinery of a British seaside town, indifferent to whether anyone's photographing it.

The B&B with "Sorry — No Vacancies" in the window stopped me partly for the message and partly because I could see my own reflection in the glass above the sign. That felt right. The photographer making himself part of the scene he's trying to document.

The human moments were the ones I kept coming back to when I reviewed the day's shoot.

A group of retirees on a bench by the waterfront sharing a box of chips in the sun, the coloured townhouses of the old harbour stacked behind them. A cluster of people in hats at an outdoor café, coffee cups and conversation, nobody looking at a phone. Two people eating 99 ice creams down a pedestrian lane, the King of Hearts gift shop sign above them, a pushchair between them.

And then the closer. Walking back along the seafront toward the car, I saw a younger man and an older woman — son and mother, I think, though I don't know — walking arm in arm toward the beach. She had her hand through his elbow. He was carrying the bag. The Ferris wheel turned slowly in the distance. I raised the camera, got one frame, and kept walking.

"This is what Little England actually looks like when you put down the argument and just walk around with a camera."

I'm not sure whether places like Weymouth represent something to mourn or something to hold onto. Probably both — which is usually the honest answer. What I do know is that they're worth photographing carefully, without an agenda, while they still look like this.

The Leica M10 rendered the light beautifully all day — that particular quality of south coast light in early spring, where the sun is bright but thin, the shadows hard-edged, the colour palette running from Georgian cream to pub red to sea-blue. I shot everything at f/8, kept the ISO low, and let the camera do what it does.

More from this series to follow. I'll be returning to Weymouth, and to towns like it, throughout the year.

Modern Masters 3: Sage Sohier: The Quiet Observer Who Changed American Photography

On this International Women's Day, we turn our Modern Masters lens onto one of the most quietly radical voices in American documentary photography — a woman who, armed with a wide-angle lens and a warm curiosity, captured the hidden heart of a nation.

A Woman with a Camera and a Question

There are photographers who shout, and there are those who whisper. Sage Sohier has always whispered — and yet her work echoes across decades. Born in Washington D.C. in 1954, Sohier spent the late 1970s and 1980s wandering the working-class neighbourhoods of America, knocking on strangers' doors, gaining their trust, and producing some of the most affecting environmental portraits ever made. She photographed gay couples at the height of the AIDS crisis. She photographed her fashion-model mother growing old. She photographed children playing in the street before the internet arrived to pull them indoors. Her work is, above all, an act of witness.

Today, on International Women's Day 2026, we celebrate Sage Sohier: a Harvard-educated, Guggenheim-awarded, MoMA-collected artist who never sought the spotlight — and who, perhaps for that reason, is finally getting the recognition she has long deserved.

Origins: Washington D.C. to Harvard Yard

Sage Sohier was born in Washington D.C. in 1954. Growing up, she was drawn to language and narrative — she arrived at Harvard University intending to major in English and, she has said, imagined she might become a writer. But she was restless, ill-suited to sitting alone in front of a typewriter for hours.

Everything changed in her sophomore year when she took her first photography class. As she later told The Photographers' Gallery in London:

"When I took my first photography class as a sophomore, I learned about fine art photography and realised that the medium had narrative possibilities as powerful as fiction writing. I was hooked."

Photography gave her what writing couldn't: a reason to be out in the world, in conversation with strangers, alive to the unexpected. She graduated from Harvard with her B.A. and never looked back.

The Big Break: Tod Papageorge and the East Coast Scene

If there was a single moment that set Sohier's course, it was meeting photographer Tod Papageorge, who visited Harvard as a senior-year artist-in-residence. The encounter was, by her own account, transformative:

"Tod was incredibly eloquent about the medium, and he somehow made me feel not only that I wanted to become a photographer, but also that it was possible for me."

Boston in the 1970s was a fertile environment for a young photographer. Sohier found herself moving in circles that included Nick Nixon, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand — giants of American documentary photography who would shape her eye and ambition. She was also deeply influenced by Diane Arbus, whose ability to produce psychologically acute portraits she spent years trying to understand, and by Chauncey Hare's book Interior America (Aperture, 1978), which showed her the documentary possibilities within ordinary domestic spaces.

Her early career blossomed quickly. She received a Massachusetts Artists Foundation photography fellowship in 1979, followed by a National Endowment for the Arts photography fellowship in 1980–81. The Guggenheim Fellowship came in 1984–85 — one of the most prestigious awards in American arts — cementing her reputation as a serious artistic voice.

Style: Close, Sharp, and Full of Life

Sohier's photographic style is immediately recognisable: wide-angle lenses, deep depth of field, everything rendered tack-sharp from foreground to background. She favoured apertures of f/11 or f/16, used on-camera flash frequently to fill her frames with even light even in low-light conditions, and shot primarily in black and white during her most celebrated early work. The effect is almost theatrical — a 'picture on a wall' quality, as one critic described it, where the entire stage of life is visible and in focus.

She has spoken candidly about her technique:

"Back in the 70s, most photographers still worked in black and white. I fell in love with wide-angle lenses — I liked how they made the foreground large and the background recede and how playing with scale created stories. I also liked to use on-camera flash, so that I could still shoot with apertures of f16 or f11 and render everything sharp even at dusk."

What makes Sohier's work distinctive is not just technical precision but the quality of presence she achieves. She was never a candid, covert photographer. She approached people directly, explained her project, asked permission, and stayed long enough for the self-consciousness to dissolve. Her subjects — working-class families, teenagers on stoops, gay couples in their living rooms — have a relaxed, unguarded quality that is the product of genuine human connection.

"Approaching people politely and with energy and enthusiasm is key. Intruding on people's personal space could feel awkward, and was never easy to do, but most of the time it seemed that my enthusiasm was contagious and people were able to relax and be themselves."

Later in her career she shifted away from the blunt on-camera flash aesthetic of her 1980s work:

"I don't shoot that way anymore, though I do still use flash a lot. I prefer more of a natural-light effect now."

Equipment: What She Used and What She Didn't

Sohier's technical choices were always in service of her vision. Her kit during the signature years of the 1980s was deliberately unglamorous:

• Wide-angle lenses — her primary tool, giving her images their characteristic sense of depth and environment

• Small apertures (f/11 and f/16) — ensuring everything in the frame was sharply rendered

• On-camera flash — not for drama, but for control, allowing her to shoot in varied light conditions while maintaining sharpness

• Medium format cameras — chosen for their exceptional detail and tonal range, which rewarded slow, deliberate composition

• Black and white film — the standard of serious documentary work in that era, and a material she fell deeply in love with

What she avoided, by temperament if not always by rule, was anything that created distance between herself and her subjects. She was not a telephoto photographer. She did not hide. She was not interested in bokeh, in dreamy soft focus, in separating subject from environment. She once noted simply: "Back then I wanted everything to be sharp and visible."

She also kept her workflow deliberate and human-paced. The medium format camera required more time and intention than a 35mm point-and-shoot — and that slower rhythm, she has suggested, actually aided her relationships with subjects, giving conversations time to breathe before the shutter clicked.

The Major Series: A Body of Work Like No Other

Sohier has spent her career in long-form documentary projects, returning to the same themes — American identity, domestic life, the nature of love — across decades. Here are the series that define her legacy:

Americans Seen (late 1970s–1980s)

Her foundational body of work, shot across the American landscape from New England to Florida to the rural Midwest. Sohier would load her car and drive south in winter, seeking out strangers in working-class neighbourhoods and asking if she could photograph them. The resulting images — published by Nazraeli Press in 2017 and reissued in a remastered edition in 2024 — are among the finest environmental portraits in American photography. They document a pre-digital, pre-internet America with warmth, clarity, and wit.

At Home With Themselves: Same-Sex Couples in 1980s America (mid-1980s)

This project is arguably Sohier's most historically significant. Begun in 1986, at the height of the AIDS crisis, it was motivated in part by her desire to understand her father, who had left the family when she was a toddler and whom she later discovered was gay. She photographed committed gay and lesbian couples in their homes across America, creating intimate portraits that stood in deliberate contrast to the sensationalised media portrayal of gay life at the time. As she has said:

"I was interested in how, as a culture, we weren't used to looking at two men touching, and was struck by the visual novelty yet total ordinariness of these same-sex relationships."

The series was so culturally ahead of its time that it found no publisher for nearly 30 years. It was finally released by Spotted Books in 2014 — just before the Supreme Court's landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling on marriage equality — and was immediately recognised as an essential historical document.

Animals (1980s–1990s)

A black-and-white series depicting people with their pets — companion animals that reveal, Sohier believes, something uninhibited and true about their human owners:

"There is more spontaneity, less self-consciousness, and more chaos when humans and other animals coexist. Love is unconditional, grief is uncomplicated though deeply felt, and life is richer, more vivid, more comical."

Published by Stanley/Barker in 2019, the series became one of her most celebrated books.

Witness to Beauty (2016)

A deeply personal project in which Sohier trained her camera on her own mother — a former fashion model photographed by such legends as Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. Sohier describes herself as the 'foil' to her mother's beauty, always behind the camera rather than in front of it. The book, published by Kehrer Verlag, is a meditation on age, femininity, and the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship.

Passing Time (2023) and Easy Days (2025)

Revisiting her archive during the pandemic, Sohier uncovered a wealth of unpublished images from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Passing Time — awarded Best Book at Paris Photo Week 2023 by Vanity Fair — presents 57 images of young people at leisure in pre-digital America. Easy Days, published by Nazraeli Press in 2025, completes a trilogy of her 1980s work and was the subject of a major solo exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California.

Iconic Images: Photographs to Look For

Sohier does not have single 'famous' images in the way Cartier-Bresson has his decisive moments — her power is cumulative, architectural, built across series and bodies of work.

But certain images stand out:

Rise to Recognition: Long Overdue

Sohier's path to wide recognition was, by any measure, a long one. She spent the 1980s building her archive while simultaneously teaching — at Harvard (as Lecturer on Visual and Environmental Studies, 1991–2003), Wellesley College (as Assistant Professor, 1997–99), the Massachusetts College of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. She was, in many ways, a photographer's photographer: deeply respected within the field, with her work collected by MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins, and the Portland Art Museum — but not yet broadly famous.

The turning point came with a cluster of major publications and exhibitions from 2012 onward. About Face (Columbia College Chicago Press, 2012), At Home With Themselves (2014), Witness to Beauty (2016), and Americans Seen (2017) established her, finally, as a photographer of genuine historical importance. MoMA's 2010–11 group exhibition 'Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography' placed her work in its proper canonical context.

The second act — Passing Time's Paris Photo acclaim in 2023, the remastered Americans Seen in 2024, and Easy Days in 2025 — has introduced her work to a new generation of photographers who find in her images both a technical mastery and a humanity they aspire to.

"I fell in love with photography in college and knew that that's what I had to spend my life doing. It's a kind of addiction, and my life doesn't feel complete unless I have a project or two that I'm working on and excited about."

What Her Peers Say

The photography world has been increasingly vocal about Sohier's importance. Here is what those who know the field best have said:

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb selected Passing Time as one of their Best Photobooks of 2023 at Photobookstore.co.uk — a significant endorsement from two of the most celebrated names in contemporary colour photography.

Ed Templeton, the skateboarder turned photographer and cult photobook connoisseur, also named Passing Time among the best books of 2023 — a mark of the book's cross-generational appeal.

Vanity Fair designated Passing Time one of the Best Books at Paris Photo Week 2023, the world's most prestigious photography fair.

Shana Lopes, curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), appeared in conversation with Sohier at the Center for Photographic Art in 2025, a gesture of institutional validation from one of America's most important photography collections.

What Will You Remember, the photography criticism publication, wrote of At Home With Themselves: "Sohier's ability to amplify the nuance of each relationship is uncanny. Her triumph: encapsulating the touching universality and individuality of our human connections."

Lenscratch, one of the most influential photography platforms online, has described her as "indefatigable" — a photographer with a "long legacy of documenting the human (and animal) condition close to home and on the streets."

Photo Resources:

Use these links to source images for the blog post (always check licensing and credit requirements before embedding):

• Sage Sohier's official website — full portfolios organised by series (Easy Days, Americans Seen, Animals, Peaceable Kingdom, At Home With Themselves, Witness to Beauty and more)

• Artsy — Sage Sohier artist page with artworks

• The Photographers' Gallery Print Sales — overview with images

• Joseph Bellows Gallery — artist biography and images

• Foley Gallery New York — solo show pages with photographs

• Lenscratch — Passing Time feature with multiple photographs

• Black & White Magazine — Americans Seen portfolio feature

YouTube Video Resources

Search for these on YouTube to find embeddable video content:

• Sage Sohier Matt Day interview

• Sage Sohier Passing Time review Matt Day

• Sage Sohier Framelines Magazine

Essential Photobooks

Sohier has published nine monographs — a body of book work that is itself remarkable for its consistency and range. Here are the essential titles:

• Easy Days (Nazraeli Press, 2025) — the final volume in her 1980s trilogy, completing a definitive document of pre-digital American life

• Passing Time (Nazraeli Press, 2023) — voted Best Book at Paris Photo Week by Vanity Fair; 57 images of youth and leisure in 1979–85 America; printed on Japanese Kasadaka art paper

• Peaceable Kingdom (Kehrer Verlag, 2021) — with an essay by writer Sy Montgomery; her most expansive exploration of the human-animal bond

• Animals (Stanley/Barker, 2019) — black-and-white portraits of people with their pets; one of the most charming and psychologically astute books in her catalogue

• Americans Seen (Nazraeli Press, 2017; remastered edition 2024) — the cornerstone of her reputation; environmental portraits of working-class America in the 1980s

• Witness to Beauty (Kehrer Verlag, 2016) — her intimate, humorous, and moving portrait of her ex-fashion-model mother

• At Home With Themselves: Same-Sex Couples in 1980s America (Spotted Books, 2014) — the groundbreaking document of gay domestic life that waited 30 years to find a publisher; now recognised as a civil rights landmark

• About Face (Columbia College Chicago Press, 2012) — a study in portraiture and facial expression

• Perfectible Worlds (Photolucida, 2007) — her earliest monograph; the beginning of a long conversation with the American domestic landscape

A Final Thought

Sage Sohier once described what drew her to people's lives:

"In my twenties, I began to see the world and understand more about people from a variety of different backgrounds. Meeting people (in order to photograph them) was thrilling, and it changed me. Being a photographer has been a wonderful excuse to wander and to be inquisitive about others' lives and experiences. I will always be grateful to the people pictured here — not just for allowing me to spend time making pictures of them — but also for how these interactions informed and enriched my life."

On International Women's Day 2026, we are grateful in turn to Sage Sohier — for her curiosity, her warmth, her courage to knock on strangers' doors, and her extraordinary eye. She has given us a portrait of America that feels, across every decade, like something essential and true.

Explore her full body of work at sagesohier.com.

Until next time, keep snapping

Candid Street Photos: Las Fallas Festival in Valencia – Fuji X100

I have just returned from my latest March annual city break with a couple of friends.

It's a simple brief: beers, some live football, decent food and some (limited) street photography.

Our first two breaks took us to Italy (Naples last year and the inaugural trip to Milan, the prior year).

After not too much debate, we decided (after a little help from AI), that Valencia ticked all the boxes.

It was a truly memorable trip that produced some 300 odd images on my (trusty old) Fuji X100 and Google Pixel Pro 8 smartphone.

This first blog post is a selection of ‘street candids’ and ‘hands’ which stood out to me.

Valencia, the vibrant Mediterranean gem on Spain's eastern coast, bursts with life, especially during the iconic Las Fallas festival in March. This festival was just starting, as we ended our break, but we did see some of the action. This was captured through these candid street photos, the city reveals its soul: a blend of timeless tradition, chaotic energy, and endlessly varied characters who make every corner feel alive.

Wandering the historic streets and bustling plazas, you encounter couples like this elderly pair strolling hand in hand through a crowded thoroughfare lined with grand Belle Époque buildings. Their linked hands speak volumes—quiet affection amid the festival frenzy, a reminder that Valencia cherishes multigenerational bonds. Nearby, locals and visitors alike pause to snap photos or simply soak in the scene, while a man thoughtfully strokes his mustache, adding to the tapestry of everyday gestures that ground the spectacle.

The rhythm of the city comes alive through its music. Street musicians and marching bands fill the air with brass and drums, as seen in these close-ups of hands striking a traditional snare drum or blowing into gleaming trumpets and trombones. Fingers grip drumsticks with precision, palms press valves, and the collective beat pulses through narrow alleys—pure Valencian passion in motion.

Art flourishes everywhere, from street performers to impromptu creators. One photo captures a bearded artist in a dapper suit perched on a stool, brush in hand, palette loaded with vibrant colors, painting en plein air against a graffiti-splashed wall. His focused grip on the brush echoes the deliberate hands elsewhere—pointing at maps, gesturing in animated conversation, or cradling instruments. Hands tell stories here: an older man with a cane leans in to explain something with emphatic finger-pointing in a tight medieval alley, while a woman in a coat clutches a city map, tracing routes with a gloved finger amid outdoor café tables.

The festival's heart shines in the parades and gatherings. Banners and embroidered flags wave from "fallas" commissions—neighborhood groups proudly carrying their standards through packed streets. Children, teens, and adults in traditional attire mingle, some waving enthusiastically or throwing hands in the air in joyful celebration. Street art peeks out too, like a striking mural of an angelic figure with closed eyes and red dress framed by a blue barred window, watched over by a robed participant.

Food remains a constant draw—glass cases brim with golden paellas, steaming rice dishes, and colorful tapas in bustling spots, a finger pointing eagerly at favorites. Even quieter moments stand out: a bundled figure standing pensively with arms crossed on a pedestrian boulevard, or skateboarders gliding past trendy meeting points advertising cheap cañas and pintxos.

What ties it all together are the varied characters—from silver-haired couples holding hands through decades, to energetic youth high-fiving in narrow "carrer" lanes, musicians whose hands coax magic from metal and skin, artists whose fingers birth color, and festival-goers whose gestures wave, point, clap, and connect. Valencia during Fallas isn't just a city; it's a living mosaic where every hand tells a story of community, creativity, and unbridled joy.

If you've ever walked these streets, you know: the real magic lies not just in the fire and ninots, but in the human details—the clasped hands, the rhythmic beats, the pointing fingers guiding friends through the chaos—that make Valencia unforgettable.

Until next time, keep snapping

Barbican Estate on Leica M10

A short video of the Barbican Estate, shot on my Leica M10 with the exceptional TTartisan 28mm F5.6.

Barbican Brutal: Concrete Dreams in the Heart of the City

If my previous post on the soaring vertical drama of Trellick Tower and the sinuous, wave-like flow of the Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate captured West London's brutalist spirit, then this one takes us straight into the City for the sequel: the Barbican Estate.

Few places embody London's post-war architectural ambition quite like the Barbican. Designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon and built between the mid-1960s and early 1980s on a 40-acre bomb-site flattened during the Blitz, this Grade II-listed complex isn't just a housing estate—it's a self-contained "city within a city." Three dramatic 40+ storey towers (Cromwell, Shakespeare, and Lauderdale), cascading low-rise terraces, elevated "streets in the sky" walkways, sunken lakes, private gardens, and the world-renowned Barbican Centre arts venue all fused into one monumental, multi-level labyrinth of bush-hammered concrete.

Brutalism here feels less austere and more utopian: raw béton brut textures meet thoughtful landscaping, sculptural forms, and a deliberate separation of pedestrians from traffic. It's divisive—some see fortress-like severity, others see bold optimism—but for street and architectural photography, it's endlessly compelling. The geometry is sharp, the scale immense, yet human moments (a dog walk, a laundry basket, a quiet bench) constantly soften the edges.

The Nerdy Bit: These black-and-white images, shot on a drizzly winter day, strip away colour distractions to emphasize form, texture, light, and shadow. The TTartisan 28mm F5.6 lens and my Leica M10. renders the concrete with incredible depth—every hammer mark, every puddle reflection pops. Processed lightly in Lightroom for contrast and grain, the series aims to let the architecture speak while highlighting how people inhabit it daily. This lens is magnificent, no horrible digital cliinical sharpness. for <£300.

The Barbican isn't just concrete—it's a bold experiment in high-density living that still feels radical. Love it or loathe it, photographing here is addictive. If Alexandra & Ainsworth was West London's poetic brutalism, the Barbican is the City's dense, layered epic.

Thanks for reading. Drop a comment if you've wandered these walkways yourself—what's your favourite brutalist spot in London?

Modern Masters 2: Eduardo Ortiz – The Nomadic Color Poet of the Streets

In the vibrant, chaotic symphony of contemporary street photography, few voices resonate with the quiet confidence and cinematic depth of Eduardo Ortiz. A Chilean-born wanderer, Ortiz transforms everyday urban moments into visual poetry—layered, color-drenched compositions that feel both spontaneous and meticulously orchestrated. His work doesn't just capture the streets; it breathes life into them, inviting viewers to linger in the beauty of the ordinary. For our "Modern Masters" series, we dive into the world of this influential photographer whose rise from multi-talented nomad to global workshop leader exemplifies the power of passion, persistence, and an unerring eye for light and color.

From Valparaíso's Shores to the World's Alleys: His History and Rise to Fame

Eduardo Ortiz was born in 1990 in Los Angeles, Chile, a small coastal city that belies his expansive artistic spirit. He spent his early years in nearby San Antonio before moving to the bohemian port city of Valparaíso, where his artistic roots truly took hold. There, he studied classical guitar, immersing himself in music and the vibrant cultural scene that drew artists from across Chile.

For years, Ortiz juggled life as a music teacher and professional cook, roles that honed his sensitivity to rhythm, texture, and human connection—qualities that would later define his photography. His nomadic journey began in earnest around 2016, as he traversed South America, Europe, and Asia, building a culinary portfolio while chasing new horizons. Photography entered the picture gradually; he started sharing travel snapshots with friends back home, fell in love with the medium, and by 2018 was hooked, studying composition, light, and the "rules" of the craft.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved a pivotal "big break" moment, albeit an unconventional one. While working as a cook in Sweden, he lost his job and visa sponsorship. With borders closing, he flew to Istanbul—one of the few places open for tourism at the time. What began as a temporary refuge blossomed into a profound love for the city and a full commitment to street photography. This period of upheaval fueled his obsession, turning travel into a creative imperative. Today, at just 35, Ortiz is a sought-after workshop instructor, Pro member of The Raw Society, and a fixture in street photography circles, with features in LensCulture, The Independent Photographer, and beyond. His "end of career"? Far from it—he's still very much in his prime, teaching worldwide and pushing boundaries as a perpetual nomad.

Major Influences: A Tapestry of Light, Cinema, and Masters

Ortiz draws from a rich well of inspirations that blend photography's greats with the worlds of painting and film. Key photographic influences include Henri Cartier-Bresson (for structure and the decisive moment), Ernst Haas and Alex Webb (for masterful color), Fan Ho and Saul Leiter (for poetic urban abstraction), Robert Frank, Fred Herzog, and more. In painting, he looks to Impressionists like Claude Monet and Joaquín Sorolla for their luminous handling of light and motion. Cinema—films like Fargo and Lawrence of Arabia—teaches him how composition isolates emotion and tells stories through space and pause.

These influences converge in Ortiz's work: a deep reverence for light as the ultimate storyteller, combined with a cinematic eye that elevates the mundane.

His Style: Cinematic Layers, Color as Language

Ortiz's photography is defined by its vibrant yet balanced color palette, intricate layering, and a calm precision that belies the chaos of the streets. He began in black and white—favoring it for texture, form, and surrealism, as in his Pamukkale series—but transitioned to color around his India work, viewing it as a new "language" to guide the eye and evoke mood. He studies color theory (complementary, analogous, triadic schemes) like a painter, using it to serve the narrative rather than overwhelm. His images feel cinematic: balanced, dynamic, and immersive.

He works scenes patiently—from background to foreground—waiting for elements to align, often breaking "rules" like the rule of thirds for diagonals that inject energy. The result? Photos that pulse with life, where every detail contributes to the whole.

A standout comment on Ortiz's ability to fill the corners of the frame: He excels at this like few others. His compositions are never sparse or accidental; he masterfully populates the edges with meaningful elements—shadows, colors, figures—that add depth, rhythm, and narrative without clutter. This "full-frame" approach creates a sense of completeness and immersion, turning two-dimensional images into living, breathing scenes that reward close inspection. It's a hallmark of his confidence and compositional intelligence.

Famous Photos and Signature Works

Ortiz's portfolio brims with iconic moments:

• Pamukkale series (Turkey): Surreal black-and-white landscapes of the "cotton castle" thermal pools, evoking dreamlike wonder.

• India transition works: Vibrant market scenes and street life that document his shift to color.

• La Boca, Buenos Aires: Layered playground shots in the colorful neighborhood, showcasing his patient scene-building.

• Istanbul and La Paz ("Chukiyawu"): Magical realism in black and white, with dramatic flash and compressed layers highlighting cultural syncretism.

View his full portfolio and latest work here: eortizdelacruz.com and on Instagram @eortizfoto.

Equipment: Fujifilm Simplicity and What He Avoids

Ortiz is a devoted Fujifilm shooter, prizing their compact size, intuitive dials, and film-like rendering for discreet street work. His go-to setup includes:

• Cameras: X-Pro2 (mainstay), X-E3, X-E2.

• Lenses: 18mm (28mm equiv.), 23mm f/1.4, 35mm (50mm equiv.), and 90mm (135mm equiv.)—with 28mm equiv. as his favorite for its versatility.

He favors maximum depth of field for sharpness across the frame, softer aesthetics, and in-camera black-and-white simulations when shooting mono. Tools like the SunTracker app help him chase optimal light. He occasionally uses flash for drama in black-and-white work.

What doesn't he like? Rigid genre "boxes"—he embraces photography broadly, without pigeonholing. He avoids over-saturation, cluttered frames, and heavy post-processing, preferring decisions made in the moment. DSLRs feel too intrusive; he wants gear that disappears so the scene takes center stage.

Famous Quotes

Ortiz's words capture his philosophy beautifully:

• "I photograph to feel part of the world, to frame life around me."

• "While travelling I felt the need of sharing what I was seeing on my trips with my people back in Chile. Little by little I fell in love with the art of photography... Now it is the sort of photography that best suits my way to see and approach the world."

• "I want people to remember that there is beauty everywhere."

• On color: "It’s easy to make colour look nice, but it’s harder to make colour serve to tell your story."

Endorsements from Peers

Ortiz's collaborative spirit shines through his partnerships. He's co-led workshops with luminaries like Andreas Kamoutsis and Mark Fearnley, and worked with artists Matt Hall and Gareth Danks. Peers praise his confidence, layering mastery, and generous teaching—evident in videos where fellow photographers shadow him and emerge inspired. As a Pro at The Raw Society and frequent feature in outlets like Frames Magazine, his work earns quiet acclaim from the street photography community for its authenticity and depth.

Photo Books and Zines

While Ortiz is more prolific in projects and workshops than traditional tomes, his standout publication is:

• Understanding Colour (self-published zine, available via his site): His debut, chronicling the shift from black and white to color through India images, complete with accessible color theory breakdowns. A must-read for aspiring color shooters.

He hints at more zines and long-term projects on his Substack and shop—keep an eye out.

YouTube Gems: Watch Ortiz in Action

Immerse yourself in his process:

• A Day of Street Photography With Eduardo Ortiz – Follow him through Istanbul's layers and confidence.

• An Honest Conversation with Street Photographer Eduardo Ortiz – Deep dive into his journey and philosophy.

• How Eduardo Ortiz Gets Colour Right in Street Photography – Color masterclass.

• His channel @eortizfoto for gear talks, POV walks, and more.

Eduardo Ortiz reminds us that street photography is less about gear or rules and more about presence, curiosity, and the courage to frame the world as you see it. In an era of fleeting scrolls, his work stands as a masterclass in slowing down to truly see. If you're inspired, grab your camera, hit the streets—and remember: beauty is everywhere.

What are your thoughts on Ortiz? Drop a comment below, and stay tuned for the next Modern Masters installment.

Until next time, keep snapping

Hello old friend

It feels good to have a camera strap around my neck again.

This past weekend, I took to the streets of London for a long-overdue photowalk, with my Nikon F80 film camera and some trusted Kodak 5222 Double XX cinefilm. There is something uniquely grounding about the city’s pace when you’re viewing it through a viewfinder—the way the light hits the brickwork in Soho or the hurried energy of shoppers carrying Waitrose bags.

These frames mark a bit of a personal milestone: this is the first time I’ve shot and developed film since September 2025.

The London Photowalk

Returning to film after a few months away always feels like re-learning a language. You remember the mechanics, but the "poetry" takes a moment to click back into place.

Walking through Carnaby Street and past the iconic storefronts of Soho, I wanted to capture the mundane yet beautiful moments of London life:

• The Contrast: The stark white of a "Thank You" storefront against the narrow, dark alleys.

• The Commute: A classic black cab waiting in the grey London light.

• The Routine: People grabbing coffee at WatchHouse or checking their phones in those quiet pockets between busy streets.

Back in the Darkroom

Developing these shots myself this weekend was the perfect way to close the loop. There’s a specific kind of anticipation that comes with pulling a wet roll of film out of the tank—especially when you haven't seen that chemical magic in months.

The grain, the shadows, and the inherent "imperfection" of these black-and-white shots captured the weekend exactly how it felt: raw, busy, and authentically London.

"Photography is an itch that won't go away. No matter how much you film, you always want more." – Bert Hardy

It’s good to be back. I’ve missed the wait, the tactile nature of the process, and the way film forces me to slow down and actually see the city.

Which of these shots is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!

Would you like me to help you draft a social media caption for one of these specific photos to help promote the post?

Until next time, keep snapping.

Camera Santa

Camera Santa was very kind to me this year, I was lucky to get a 28mm M mount lens for my Leica cameras.

The 28mm focal length is often called the "goldilocks" of street photography. It’s wide enough to capture the energy of a city street but tight enough to feel personal. Recently, I took my Leica M10 paired with the tiny TTArtisan 28mm f/5.6 for a spin through the heart of London to see how this modern "tribute" lens handles the grit and glamour of the capital.

I’ll be honest: 28mm is my absolute favorite focal length. I have loved this aspect since I bought the Ricoh GRII (second hand) a couple of years ago. Its also generally the focal length of smartphones, which was origins of my interest in street photography (whilst on my commute into the office, back in the day). Whilst I really enjoy both the 35mm and 50mm, there is a specific immersion you get with a 28mm that makes the viewer feel like they are standing right next to you on the pavement.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Before diving into the photos, it’s worth noting that the 28mm has a legendary pedigree. Some of the most influential street photographers in history chose this perspective to document the world:

• Garry Winogrand: The master of the 28mm. He used its wide field of view to pack his frames with "organized chaos," often tilting the camera to create a sense of frantic energy.

• William Klein: Known for his raw, "in-your-face" style, Klein loved the 28mm because it forced him to get physically close to his subjects, creating a sense of intimacy that a longer lens just can't replicate.

• Daido Moriyama: For his gritty, high-contrast snapshots of Tokyo, Moriyama famously utilized the fixed 28mm lens of the Ricoh GR series to capture the "are-bure-boke" (rough, blurred, and out-of-focus) aesthetic.

The Walk: From Embankment to the West End

The TTArtisan 28mm f/5.6 is a "pancake" lens, making the M10 incredibly pocketable and discrete. Because the maximum aperture is a modest f/5.6, this lens is designed for zone focusing. It’s kind of counterintuitive to have a F2 28mm lens, when the basis of the lens is to shoot wide and deep. I set my aperture to f/8, my focus to between 2 / 3 meters, and let the depth of field do the work.

1. Embankment & Southbank

I started at Embankment. Looking down from the walkways, the 28mm allowed me to capture the geometry of the station entrance and the flow of commuters. The high-angle shots showcased how the lens handles architecture and human movement simultaneously.

Crossing over to the BFI Riverfront, the "CINEMA" sign provided a classic London backdrop. The wide angle excels here; it lets you frame a large subject like a building while still catching the candid expressions of people walking past.

2. The Grit of Soho and Chinatown

Street photography isn't always about the landmarks. Sometimes, it’s about a pile of trash bags on a busy corner or the narrow, bin-lined alleys behind Leicester Square. The 28mm is perfect for these tight spaces.

In Chinatown, I caught a great moment of the chefs taking a break outside "Hungry Panda." The lens is so small that they hardly noticed me, allowing for a truly candid slice-of-life shot.

4. Details and Characters

A jaunt upto London also warrants a stroll along Oxfrod Street and the like to photograph the shoppers. As I moved toward the National Portrait Gallery, I spotted a man in a heavy coat and earmuffs. The 28mm creates a unique "environmental portrait" where the subject is clear, but their surroundings—the ornate metal fences and London stone—tell the rest of the story.

Final Thoughts on the TTArtisan 28mm

For a fraction of the cost of the Leica Summaron, this lens delivers a lot of character. It’s sharp in the center, has a lovely vintage-style vignette, and the "clicky" aperture ring is a joy to use. Shooting digital, you are blessed with ‘fixing’ and fall off to the ourside of the frame in LRC.

Using a 28mm forces you to be a participant, not just an observer. You can’t hide in the shadows with a telephoto; you have to be in the thick of it, just like Winogrand.

Until next time, keep snapping.