Shooting street photography is, at the same time, incredibly straightforward yet incredibly complex. On the one hand, it's about keeping your kit as minimal as possible; but on the other, your kit has to be absolutely right for the job. And while it's about documenting the scene, rather than staging it, if you're not in the right place at the right time then you may come home with nothing.
Josh Edgoose is a professional photographer who has definitely mastered the art of "the scene". His images range from the witty to the whimsical, punctuated by a unique sense of colour and emotion. And to achieve this, he uses Fujifilm equipment – most recently the Fujifilm X-T50.
We recently had the opportunity to chat to Josh about his approach to shooting, how he uses the X-T50 to capture what he sees, and how he's still very much an analogue photographer despite no longer shooting analogue photography.
Based in London, England, Josh specialises in street photography and portraiture possessing a magical, filmic quality. A full-time professional, his work has been featured in publications like The Guardian, and he also runs a YouTube channel and magazine called Framelines.
For those unfamiliar with your work, give us a little intro of who you are, what you shoot and how long you've been shooting it.
Of course, I primarily take photographs on the street, either candid street photos around London or I quite often approach people and ask for portraits. I've been doing it for about a decade now. I initially came to it from studying photography at college. It became my hobby for many years, and then, a few years ago, I quit my job – and now I do it full-time.
I like to take light-hearted joyful photographs. Colour is extremely important to me. I like to say that I look for colour and coincidence. It's heavily influenced by the way that film looks. I’ve been lucky enough to meet photographers like Martin Parr along the way who’ve been a huge influence in terms of his use of colour and composition.
It's just my obsession. I honestly take a couple thousand photos a week and have done for a long, long time. But I’m not saying they’re all good!
Tell me a bit about your photographic journey – what are your first memories of trying to make an image.
I used to play with my parents’ film cameras, and as a kid it just really seemed so fun. I used to have my own clothing brand for a few years, and I had to take all the product shots myself, but I just kind of dipped in and out of it until I found street photography.
That was on a trip to New York, probably about ten years ago, and it kind of reminded me that there were these photographers like Garry Winogrand and Joel Meyerowitz who took these photos on the street. And I think being in the big city as well just kind of overwhelmed me. There was just so much going on, so many characters, so many moments, and it suddenly clicked – I was like, oh yeah, I could try this in London!
What was your first “proper camera” or the one you cut your teeth with?
I did photography at college nearly 16 years ago. I think we had to shoot black-and-white film. We were told to get a film SLR and a 50mm lens. We had to shoot three rolls a week and develop them and print them. And at the time, it wasn't really the way I wanted to do it. It felt very restrictive.
After that, I just went digital and moved to Fujifilm – it was the X100T. I don't shoot film at all anymore. For the amount I shoot, it just doesn't make sense economically.
Your street photography is so evocative. Everything has a great sense of narrative, but your composition is exquisite as well. Is there a specific approach or mindset behind what you do?
Mindset is very important. I can't always guarantee I will be in the right mindset. It's taken a long time to get to the point where I just go out – and what happens, happens. More often than not I come home with nothing at all. When I started doing it, I was very obsessed with social media. I got very hung up about going home and making sure I had a photo I'd be happy to post on the internet.
The longer I do it, the more laid back I've got about it. You just have to go out and keep an open mind. I think street photographers in general have to be very optimistic; you can't go out there and think, ‘Oh, nothing's going to happen.’ You have to know that with the very act of leaving the house with the camera, you're increasing the chance of stumbling across something interesting.
I like to go to places where there's going to be a good amount of footfall. In London in particular there's always something going on at the weekend. There's Trafalgar Square or Portobello Road Market, areas where there's lots of people, something's always going to happen.
I find that if you see something interesting happening, if you wait around it will probably happen again. For example, if a pigeon has swooped down and grabbed someone's sandwich, that’s because the pigeons know! So they'll just keep doing it, and you can just wait around and keep trying to get it.
In terms of composition, I've learned over the years to stay put and literally just pivot a bit, shuffle from side to side. Even just squatting or lifting the camera above your head – it's always just trial and error. And then there's also a bit of cropping retrospectively, I do quite a lot of that. I’m not a snob about cropping.
That kind of nimble composition, pivoting and shuffling in the midst of a scene, especially with a lot of your low-angle work, I'm guessing that the tilting screen and the inconspicuous footprint of cameras like the Fujifilm X-T50 are really helpful.
Yeah, I love low-angle – it just adds that extra drama, especially when you can compose people against the backdrop of the sky or something like that. It can transform a pretty mediocre picture into something that you might put on your website. Having a small discreet setup with the tilting screen, you can achieve a lot more – especially on the street.
Cameras like the X-T50 are obviously very retro-styled. Does that change the response you get from people, thinking you’ve got a film camera, or even act as an ice breaker if you’re asking for a portrait?
It really does. Honestly, people ask about it once or twice a week: "Is that a film camera?" That's good, especially for portraits. People are like, "That's a nice little vintage camera" – but if you went with a DSLR and a big 24-70 lens, it would definitely be a different vibe.
We mentioned the explosion of film photography. One of the big things about the Fujifilm X-T50 is the dedicated Film Simulation dial right on top of the camera – pretty much inviting you to shoot with that film-like experience.
Yeah it's a really interesting choice to put it physically on the top. When I tried it out I was like, wow, you can make creative choices and experiment on the fly. I hadn't really shot much black-and-white until trying the camera; it’s just really cool to, especially in London, if it's overcast, you can go, ‘Oh, I'll see how this looks in Acros. Oh, it looks way better!’
It has a nice animation on the screen as you do it, as well. It's such a satisfying, tactile little fun wheel. And I kind of used it thinking, maybe I'll go home and make a few tweaks on these pictures, and I’ve just left them as they are because they look so good. It's cool to have that extra dimension on the go, seeing it in real time. It's a nice addition.
You were saying you’ve been with the Fujifilm system pretty much from the beginning, since you picked up the X100T?
I've owned the X-T2, X-T3, X-Pro3, X-T4, X-T5, X-H2… I'm so bad with gear!
Aren’t we all! We've seen a lot of new features come in over that time, from the in-body image stabilisation to the new 40MP sensor, but has there been anything in particular that has really made a notable difference to your work?
The sensor, definitely, because I've owned the GFX 50S a couple times as well – and that is obviously a big bump in image quality. But that 40MP sensor kind of evens the playing field. There's much more flexibility in the colours for me as well – colour’s really important. I really love one of the newer Film Simulations called Nostalgic Neg: it creates really nice whites and greens.
For portraits as well, it’s really nice having that extra bit of detail on the sensor – and it's lovely for video, too. I shoot a lot of video for clients and for my YouTube channel and other things, so appreciate the great video specs and the stabilisation as well.
APS-C sensors like the Fujifilm X-T50's have plenty of advantages compared to full frame. As someone whose work is regularly printed and published, can you speak to its quality for printing?
Yeah, people seem to think you need a massive file in order to print something – you just don't. Even 24MP is honestly more than enough most of the time; we print a magazine regularly, Framelines, and you can get away with 12 or even 8MP. Obviously more megapixels are nice to have, but more often than not 24 is absolutely fine.
I suppose there's a slight difference in depth of field with APS-C to full frame, but it's really minor. The thing is, if you want to shoot APS-C and get that shallow depth of the field look, you just use a slightly longer lens – that's what it comes down to, really.
You started on the X100 series, and the new X100VI has become so popular that it’s like gold dust right now. Do you think something like the Fujifilm X-T50 with a compact prime – or zoom, or whatever lens you want – makes a good alternative?
That's the thing: I like the X100 series, but I like being able to change lenses more. So coming from the X-H2, the X-T5 and then trying the X-T50, this is significantly smaller – especially if you put on the Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8, which is a pancake lens. I know people say ‘it can go in your pocket’ but it genuinely can go in your pocket. It's tiny. That’s a really great option, especially because you never know, you might want to try a longer lens or a wider lens. So having a mount is a nice alternative.
Finally, can you share some advice: What would you say to somebody just starting out on their photographic journey, and what would you say to yourself if you could go back to the start of your own journey?
Don’t get too hung up on social media. Try to consume photography in books, and maybe try to reach out to somebody whose work you really look up to and respect – because photographers often do reply to your emails! I think it's good to try to find a mentor, or a local community, or friends who you can bounce ideas off.
I found it really important to have three or four photographers whose work I like and respect, and they can give you honest feedback and opinions. I think that's much more valuable than throwing images into the void of social media and getting demotivated about not getting likes.
You don't have to be shooting the same type of photography, either; you can share work that you like, share photo books with each other. We talk about analogue photography, but I think it's a shift towards the analogue photography community – in the sense that it doesn't exist on the internet.
