Street Photography inspiration

I have found this project "Town to Town" realised by the Scottish photographer Niall McDiarmid who spent years taking portraits of people in the street around the UK shooting in big cities as well as small villages.

What makes this series extremely strong is the consistency. Even if he uses different crops and both digital and film cameras, all his portraits share a particular feel that makes his original style.

I think he always used roughly the same lens, possibly a 50mm, and a very wide aperture (around 2.0) since the depth of field is very shallow. I have tried to replicate this style of portrait, and I have got similar results using my mirrorless Fuji XT-10 with a 35mm mounted (50mm equivalent) and setting the aperture at its widest point (2.0).

His images are incredibly observational, he connects people and the surrounding environment in a way that cannot be "chancy", I assume that many of his pictures are made "looking and waiting" every time he finds an interesting location (or maybe finding interesting subjects and following them...). However, I also believe that many shots are taken just observing around and finding the perfect match at the moment, in fact some times the background has nothing particularly special to make you stop and wait, but it becomes interesting only in relation with the subject.

Another aspect thai I love about his work is the film like colour palette, this "old fashioned" look gives the extra aesthetic quality to the project that makes it to stand out.