“I chose to make this distinction between photojournalism and documentary at the beginning of this book because this volume is distinct from my normal practice. The images come from a lifetime of informed wandering around the streets of towns and cities in Britain. Almost all photographers set out with a purpose in mind; very rarely do they just go and see, or just go and explore. Life awaits you, but you have already filtered out distractions. The joy of this approach is that you can be, and often are, frequently surprised by the theatre of the street.

In an attempt to give these pictures some continuity, and not present them as a series of revelatory moments or a chronological history, I have placed them into connected themes: cultural customs, figures in a landscape, history lessons in concrete and brick, motion and joy, solitude, proclamations, community and collectivity, uniform and identity, and the street as theatre. In each one the subjects, be they human or stone, are being used by me to make an observation that is out of their control.”