Busy streets, festive lights and fleeting moments make Manchester's Christmas Markets a fascinating environment for street photography. But with so much happening, how do you find photographs amongst the chaos – and turn those fleeting moments into a story?
For Greater Manchester photographer and educator Dave Laffan, it starts with observation, composition and learning to see the world differently.
In this article, Dave explores how a simple shift in perspective can help photographers discover stories – and sets you a challenge to tell one in just twelve photographs.
Manchester’s Christmas Markets in full swing
Street photography is often about learning to see things that others might overlook. An interesting relationship between light and shadow, an unexpected interaction between people or a fleeting moment in an otherwise ordinary scene can all provide the foundations for a compelling photograph.
For professional photographer and educator Dave Laffan, the urban environment offers endless opportunities to explore these ideas.
Manchester's Christmas Markets provide a particularly interesting setting. With their combination of festive lighting, busy streets, colourful displays and constant movement, they offer a wealth of photographic possibilities. But they also present some challenges.
When there's so much happening around you, how do you decide what to photograph? And perhaps more importantly, how do you turn an aesthetically pleasing photo into an interesting collection that has something to say?
Finding photographs amongst the street
Good street photography is rarely about simply pointing a camera at people and pressing the shutter. It's about observation, anticipation and understanding how stories can be formed from an otherwise innocuous encounter.
The challenge is often knowing what to prioritise.
Busy urban environments are full of visual distractions. People, signage, buildings, stalls and artificial lighting all compete for attention. Without careful consideration of composition, it's easy for an image to become cluttered, with no clear subject or point of interest.
Learning to simplify a scene is therefore an important part of developing as a street photographer.
But Dave's approach goes a little further than simply looking for individual photographs. He's interested in how a collection of images can work together to communicate a wider idea.
"When I'm capturing street photography, I'm rarely considering the images as individual stories," Dave explains. "My aim is to explore a theme and build a collection of images that work together to tell a coherent story."
It's a subtle but important distinction. Rather than simply looking for a series of interesting photographs, Dave is looking for a common thread that connects them.
And on this particular visit to Manchester, that thread presented itself quite unexpectedly.
Discovering Eat Street - A Theme
It's been six years since Dave last visited Manchester's Christmas Markets with his camera, and one of the first things he notices is how much the character of the markets appears to have changed.
"The last time I was here, there was such an eclectic mix of stalls," he explains. "But it's all food and drink now."
For many visitors, this might be an incidental observation. For a street photographer, however, it presents an opportunity.
The focus of the shoot had suddenly become much clearer. Rather than attempting to photograph the Christmas Markets in their entirety, Dave had identified a subject that could provide the foundation for a collection of images.
This is an important part of his creative process in street photography. A theme doesn't necessarily need to be planned before leaving home. Sometimes it emerges through observation, as a photographer begins to recognise patterns, relationships and recurring subjects within an environment.
Eat Street - sharing a plate (or a takeaway container) on the streets of Manchester.
Building a photographic story
With a subject in mind, the challenge becomes finding different ways to explore it.
The markets provide a constantly changing backdrop, with people buying food, carrying drinks, stopping to eat and interacting with the stalls around them. Each encounter offers a different perspective on the same underlying theme.
For Dave, this means looking beyond the obvious photograph.
“The food stalls look amazing, but it’s the interactions going on around them that I’m interested in. It’s less about the market and more about people and their relationship with food and drink.”
When food moves beyond a functional transaction into something more interactive and emotive.
The strength of a photographic collection comes from coherance. Being intentional during the shoot helps to provide that.
It's also plays its part in the edit, where sequencing becomes important. Thinking about how images relate to one another, rather than simply presenting everything that was shot, can transform a set of individual images into something with a much stronger narrative.
This way of thinking is central to Dave's approach to photography, “I really believe in the power of a collection of photographs to tell a story. But I see it less and less. I guess it’s something that social media has encouraged us to dismiss.”
Master the Technical | Free the Creative
Something Dave continually encourages is the idea that the technical side of photography is solely there to facilitate the creativity of the photographer.
"Understanding the fundamentals of how a camera works is key to becoming a confident photographer. And being a confident photographer is what allows us to realise our creative vision."
Developing technical confidence allows photographers to spend more time concentrating on the creative decisions that make a collection of images work together.
Learning to see the world differently
For Dave, this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of street photography. It's an opportunity to explore familiar environments, discover new perspectives and find interesting stories in everyday situations.
It's also a reminder that photographers don't necessarily need to travel somewhere extraordinary to find interesting subjects.
“Every town and city has its own character,” he explains. “Learning to recognise these opportunities, identify a theme and build a collection of photographs around it is a skill in itself.”
And it's something that Dave is keen to encourage through his photography education.
Discover urban photography in Manchester
Through Let's Click Photography, Dave runs practical urban photography workshops in Manchester, helping photographers develop their technical understanding and explore a more creative approach to making images.
For those interested in street photography, it's also an opportunity to start thinking beyond individual images and explore how a collection of photographs can communicate a theme or tell a story.
Finding your own story - A Photography Exercise You Can Try
The next time you head out with your camera, Dave suggests trying a simple exercise.
“Before taking a single photograph, spend five to ten minutes just observing and look for something that interests you. It might be a particular activity, an interaction between people, a recurring pattern or an interesting relationship between the environment and those using it.
Once you've identified something that catches your attention, use it as the starting point for a photographic theme.”
The challenge: Can you tell a story using just twelve photographs?
Try building a small collection of images, exploring the subject through different perspectives and compositions. Include wider photographs that establish the environment, medium shots that explore the activity and closer details that add another layer to the story.
Then review your images. Do they work together? Do they communicate something about your chosen subject? And, perhaps most importantly, could someone looking at the collection understand the story you're trying to tell?
After all, learning to use a camera is only part of becoming a photographer. Learning to see the world differently, recognise opportunities and develop your own creative approach is where the real possibilities begin.
That's exactly what Dave aims to encourage through his Manchester urban photography workshops.
Interested in developing your urban photography?
Whether you're looking to improve your technical understanding, become more confident photographing in busy environments or develop a more considered approach to street photography, Dave's workshops provide a friendly, practical environment in which to learn.
Discover Dave's Manchester photography courses and explore upcoming workshops