The Strandlines team periodically check in on photos tagged to the Strand (and surrounding areas) on Instagram and Twitter. We came across Dan Kirmatzis’s work on Instagram. A huge thanks to Dan for so generously sharing his photographs and insights into his inspiration and processes.
“Although I take many photos in the street genre style, I would describe myself simply as a photographer. The medium of photography lends itself to categorisation, so I’m often asked if I’m a portrait-, street-, documentary-, or still-life- photographer.
Whilst my preferred medium is portraits I really take photographs of many things. My Strand series was started after I moved jobs in 2019. Between 2016-2019 my lunch-time walks consisted of taking photographs along Piccadilly but when I moved south of the river I needed a subject closer to my new office.
After walking across Waterloo Bridge one lunch-time and proceeding down the Strand my retina was immediately alerted to this great area – a place full of history and characters – but often overlooked as a subject for photographers. So I started to document the plethora of life on the Strand – from couple’s embracing, to people having casual conversations to people sitting in coffee shop windows watching the world go by.
I am a huge fan of a number of photographers whose bodies of work falls into the street photography category including Gary Winogrand, Vivian Maier and Joel Meyerowitz to name just three. Unfortunately Covid-19 was spreading across the world just as I was hitting my stride with the project and has been – I hope temporarily – interrupted but it may also now never be completed.
Even if I did restart the project, these images presented here will remain a time-capsule of a pre-pandemic world.
They were all taken on an Olympus OM1n camera with Kodak Tri-X 400 film.”
![Strand Series (82) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-82-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (82) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (74) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-74-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (74) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (54) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-54-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (54) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (16) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-16-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (16) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (77) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-77-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (77) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (40) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-40-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (40) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (56) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-56-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-684x1024.jpg)
Strand Series (56) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (81) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-81-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-634x1024.jpg)
Strand Series (81) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (57) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-57-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (57) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (55) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-55-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (55) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (13) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-13-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (13) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (69) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-69-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (69) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (68) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-68-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (68) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
![Strand Series (67) Dan Kirmatzis 2020](https://www.strandlines.london/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Strand-Series-67-Dan-Kirmatzis-2020-1024x684.jpg)
Strand Series (67) Dan Kirmatzis 2020
All photographs are copyright Dan Kirmatzis 2020. http://dankirmatzis.com @dankirmatzis on Instagram and @dankirmatzis on Twitter.
Excellent photographs by Dan. You get a real sense of the place and the people there. Black & White is by far the best medium for the scenes and people he selected More please.
Thanks so much for your comment, Michael. I agree – the photos are so evocative.