street   >   hristo style

on a recent trip to sofia, bulgaria, i stupidly forgot to pack the neck strap for my camera. luckily though i noticed a spare dog collar on the kitchen side (the host of the airbnb i was staying at owned a beautiful black lab) and i managed to turn it into a makeshift wrist strap to avoid dropping my camera when out shooting the city. result.

i almost always shoot with my neck strap across one shoulder but i found that this new wrist strap gave me much greater freedom of movement. so after getting used to it i found myself walking about the city and shooting people from ankle height at 24mm as i passed them. i didn't look through the lens at all, instead maintaining eye contact and engaging directly with each subject.

i'd stumbled upon a way of shooting i'd never tried before and it felt incredibly exciting. early on i realised the results were pretty powerful too so i decided to shoot this way for the duration of my time in sofia.

by the end of the trip, i'd become pretty attached to this cheap looking wrist strap thing i'd made. it actually became really difficult to part with it!

hristo wasn't at the aprtment when i was packing to leave, but we got on really well so i didn't think he'd mind if i left him a few euros in exchange for the collar. i left all my remaining change on the side (about €15 in total) packed the collar with the rest of my equipment and headed off to the airport.

it was only when i was sitting in the departure lounge that i heard from hristo. and it turns out this was no dog collar at all...!!

it was in fact a ridiculously expensive limited edition keyring designed by the luxury fashion house of "kenzo"! luckily hristo saw the funny side. he wasn't bothered at all, in fact he was actually really happy it was going to continue being put to better use!

to mark his generosity and all round good character, i decided to start referring to this approach as 'hristo style'. i recently used it again whilst on a job in brooklyn, new york, so the images below offer a mix of stills captured in this way from both cities.

dedicated to hristo! :)