Chinese Lanterns, Trafalgar Square, London. I have always steered clear of the very popular. I’ve always been disappointed when a band I like have drifted into the mainstream. Always preferred the intimacy of a few people in a small venue to the big arena. Always avoided the big hitters - be they bands, movies, shows - whatever seems to be massively on trend has always somehow driven me away. I’ve always preferred to remain on the edge. Setting Up, Trafalgar Square, London. Maybe it is this position as the outsider that has drawn me to street photography. The Bystander. Watching from the edg ..read more

The streets aren’t paved with gold but the warm fluorescent glow spilling onto the wet flagstones like Chablis are a damn close second on this winter’s night in Soho. The deep blue-black of the sky only accentuates the staccato blasts of the neon signs trumpeting reds, pinks and oranges. If it’s only Mad Dogs and Englishmen that go out in the midday sun, then maybe it’s just drunks and street photographers who stay out on nights like this. Fingerless gloves clutch numbly at the small black box, somehow adjusting dials without feeling them. On The Dotted Line. London 2022. What warmth there is ..read more

A hard drive crashing is never a good thing but, as an eternal optimist, I can see the good that is coming from it. I’ll get to that. Don’t worry - it’s not as bad as it could’ve been – I have it all backed up in the cloud and this was a backup hard drive anyway. It has drawn my attention to just how full my main drive is. While the price of external memory is far cheaper than it was, I still don’t want to be buying new drives unnecessarily. It was clearly time for a good old-fashioned clear out. As a street photographer, I’m very well used to that boom and bust cycle of returnin ..read more

Back once again for the renegade headmaster Pardon the dodgy pun (and with respect to Wildchild) but it’s being playing in my head since I decided to rekindle the blog during a week’s break from running the school. So, what’s this and why now? You might well ask. It’s been a long time. I suppose the longer you leave something the harder it is to get going again. Momentum tails off. The longer I’ve been away, the greater the pressure has felt to make the comeback somehow significant. That brings pressure of its own. How could I begin to make the first piece back all the more worthwhile? So I d ..read more

As we emerged, blinking, from lockdown, the south coast was gearing up for something of a summer - even if it wasn’t clear yet what it would be. Here are a few images from Southsea on a grey Saturday in April ..read more

I can’t remember being so pleased to see the back end of a year like I did 2020. The New Year may not have brought the greatest of changes but there is hope - vaccines, testings and such. Regardless, the weather here played its part in a memorable start with freezing fog on the higher ground of the Surrey Hills. Welcome to Hascombe Hill. I am most definitely a street photographer but any photography is better than no photography and, given that lockdown meant no visiting town and city streets, I enjoyed the chance to slow down and shoot some landscape images to start 2021. The fog had really ..read more

I don’t ever recall meeting a baker who actually gave me thirteen when I wanted 12. Not loaves, rolls or cream horns. Not of anything. Mind you, I can’t imagine ordering twelve of anything anyway - certainly not cream horns. Nonetheless, as it’s the season of giving, I give to you my baker’s dozen of selected images from the year that we are about to gleefully kick in to touch. 2020. These aren’t necessarily the most liked on social media - I didn’t check. They’re not necessarily technically the best. They’re not even the ones I think are definitively the best. They’re just the ..read more

Red Alert. Soho, London. Sept 2020. Not that anyone should be able to predict the contents of their Christmas stocking, but when this year began I would never have foreseen that Santa would be leaving, not one but, two face masks. Just one marker of what a strange year this has been. And, of course, it is all reflected in the images I have taken too; the number of images, the location and the style and the genres captured. Or, perhaps to put it more accurately, in the images I haven’t taken.  January saw several photo walks, both solo and accompanied around favourite London haunts – the ..read more

I always remember seeing photographs from the Second World War showing streets with people rushing to sand bagged air raid shelters, or newspaper boys with hoardings proclaiming the outbreak of war, or crowds dancing jubilant in Trafalgar Square on VE Day. There was something mesmeric, possibly haunting, abut the familiarity but strangeness of these images. Here were places I knew, and scenes that were familiar, but distorted by the events that had transformed them at that point in time.  History has always fascinated me and part of it has been a desire to be able to go back and witness ..read more

Here are some links to articles or features about me and my work: Kris Karl Photography Podcast: I am lucky enough to have been featured twice on Kris’s podcast. You can listen to them here Episode 21: Spotify Episode 21: Apple Episode 31: Spotify Episode 31: Apple Article about my work on Streetphotography.com by Sergio Burns https://streetphotography.com/adventures-start-street-photography-hugh-rawson/ Interview and images on The Pictorial List Mag https://www.thepictorial-list.com/post/interview-hugh-rawson   Featured in Digital Photographer magazine Issue 195 ..read more