Brits

When photographer Jason Reed moved from London to the country three years ago, he had to get used to a very new environment. He spent a year looking before he finally realized that the material for a new project was right there in the everyday life of Buckinghamshire.

“I started this project after moving out of London to a small village in Buckinghamshire three years ago. In terms of my photography, it was very odd not having a busy city on my doorstep and I spent a year trying to find something close to the vibrancy of London in nearby towns. Of course I failed and grew very frustrated.

The theme you see grew organically because I didn’t even realise it was a project - I was just shooting what was around me. Then suddenly it dawned on me that this was something I could consciously work on and it went from there.

I don’t really consider what I do to be street photography as such; more like a hybrid of street and documentary photography. Unless it’s the rare portrait, I never get involved in the scene before me and I use a Leica M6 with a 50mm lens; the longer lens helps me maintain a discrete distance from my subjects. Most of the images in Brits are taken in Buckinghamshire, but a few are from events further afield.”