A series celebrating the talent of our friends over in the Londonist Flickr pool. Here, they introduce themselves and share their favourite London shots.
My name is Scott Cadman, I am fifteen years old, and I have lived in London all my life. I have always enjoyed roaming the streets of the city, right from when I was very young, as there are small details that you only ever see if you are half lost. I particularly like to wander around East and East Central London because there are so many contrasting features that are offered. I find it quite strange, yet wonderful, that one minute you can be walking down grimy, graffiti covered streets, then the next moment you are surrounded by shiny, high-rise office blocks and men in suits. This obsession of mine influenced me hugely to pick up my camera and take photos, from my perspective, and attempt to capture the urban atmosphere for others to see.
My real passion is UrbExing (Urban Exploration). This is the exploring of abandoned locations, which is widely tied in with photography. These places offer masses of mood and I find myself entranced with thought when I enter these forgotten buildings. They are sometimes packed full of belongings and documents that would have once meant a lot to a certain person, but have now been left, untouched for the last twenty years. I find the peeling of paint and the vast decay of many derelict places extremely photogenic and beautiful. This is the main reason I have began to take photography very seriously, investing all the money I own into as much equipment as I can afford.
When I am photographing the streets of London, I prefer to shoot alone so I can keep a solid frame of mind. I try and make my photos tell stories, for example, I will let a pedestrian pass into my photo to force people to imagine where this person may be going, and what they might be doing. I also like taking photos at night as I think London is a magical place at night, the city is always alive and awake. I also like to experiment, I change the settings on my camera, I look at other people photos and gain influence, I try new things on Photoshop. I think that it is very important that you do things your way and let your own style unravel, keeping your photos original and different. Whether or not people like your photos - who cares? My advice to evolving photographers is to do your thing, and nobody else's.
Check out more of Scott's Flickrstream and browse previous 'Behind the Lensers here. If you haven't joined our flickr pool yet - get snappy!
