22
The Observer
25.08.19 PhotographyCrowd surfi ng
Shane Taylor’s nostalgic London street scenes are an Instagram
hit. He tells Killian Fox how his passion for fi nding connections
in crowds helped him overcome his social anxiety
Photographs by
Shane Taylor
T
hey could be
snapshots of an earlier
time. In Shane Taylor’s
street photographs
of London, we see
gentlemen in trilbys
stalking around Mayfair and women
with powdered faces and rouged
cheeks staring imperiously out
the windows of grand Piccadilly
cafes. A cursory glance might date
these images to the 1950s. Take
a closer look, however, and you
begin to spot telltale details: the
white earbuds, the smartphones,
the New Routemaster buses in the
background. Taylor, whose work
pays homage to such greats as
Robert Frank and Sergio Larrain ,
says he was “trying to get the
classic look I love from those older
photographers by shooting with a
certain type of fi lm and camera, in
areas of London where you still see
people in suits and hats ”.
Raised in the midlands of Ireland,
Taylor started taking photography
seriously in his late 20s while
studying visual communications
in Dublin. Nearly a decade later, in
2016, he launched an Instagram
account, @heroesforsale , posting
new work on a near-daily basis (he
now has nearly 60,000 followers ,
impressive for an amateur street
photographer). When he moved to
London the following summer to
work as a user experience designer
for an e-commerce company, the
project helped familiarise him with
the city, where he enjoys blending
into busy West End crowds. “I love
being in the thick of it,” he says,
“because people don’t notice you
as much, so you can get a lot closer,
especially if you’re carrying a big old
vintage camera.”
Unlike some photographers
who treat human subjects as mere
elements in a composition, Taylor is
very interested in people. “Usually
what grabs me is a particular
expression, or the way someone is
holding their head, or how the light
has caught them.” The important
thing, he emphasises, is “the
emotion you get from that scene ”.
Curiously, for someone whose
passion involves seeking moments
of connection in crowded places,
Taylor has suffered from acute
social anxiety since his teens and
for a long time found it diffi cult
to leave his parents’ house. “Itbasically ruined my 20s,” he says.
The communications course,
undertaken as he neared 30, was an
attempt to fi ght back. On his fi rst
photography assignment for college,
documenting a busy Dublin street
market, it took him a couple of visits
to build up the courage to take a
single photo. “But once you’ve been
doing it for a while, it gets easier,” he
says. “I found it was a good way to
face the anxiety head on.”
Mostly , the project has led to happy
encounters. One woman pursued
Taylor after he photographed her
embracing someone in a cafe. “I
thought I was going to be in trouble,
but it turned out she was a street
photographer and wanted to see
what kind of photo it was. I showed
her and she loved it.” Sometimes
people spot themselves, or friends,
on Instagram and get in touch, and
often Taylor will send them a print in
return. “As a stranger over here, it’s
been a great way to meet people in
London,” he says. “I’ve met so many
nice people through doing this.”Crossed With Care, a London street
photography zine by Shane Taylor, is
available now at shanetaylor.net