‘The People of Soho’ is a two year long street portraiture project photographing people on the streets of Soho. Peter Zelewski tells us how he approached the spontaneous series and why he loves portraiture.
‘The People of Soho’ is a completely spontaneous project so Peter Zelewski didn’t source models or pre-plan the photographs, instead he approached individuals randomly on the streets offering to take their portrait.
The idea behind the project was to put together a series of bold portraits which would sit consistently as a set shot in an area of London the photographer had a real passion for.
“To keep the series consistent, I used a variety of background settings in the area such as tight alleyways and narrow streets in an attempt to co-ordinate my subjects with the background setting,” he tells us. In the two years Peter worked on the project he met and photographed over 100 people throughout the Soho area.
“When I exhibited the project, I did quite a lot of research to try and find a suitable printer for the photographs and thankfully all fingers pointed to theprintspace,” Peter explains.
“I tested several papers but was blown away by the quality of Fuji Matt C-Type paper,” he adds. “The tonal quality of the prints was incredible with very accurate skin tones which really made the portraits come alive.”
“After spending so much time previously viewing the images on screen it was very satisfying seeing them in print which really was the making of the project.”
Check out Peter Zelewski’s website to see the full series and more of his portraiture and you can also follow him on Twitter.
Learn more about our different c-type and giclee paper types to print your work on.
