25 fabulous photos of Londoners by Max Gor

‘I have to say that people of London are very open and kind. Ninety-five percent of my experiences are highly positive.’

‘Very often people not only let me photograph them, they are also willing to be involved, asking what they should do, and trying to be as helpful as they possibly can.’

‘Protests and marches make very good places for practising street photography.’

‘If you behave wisely, these events are pretty safe, with a lot of things are going on, and people are very keen to be photographed.’

’So I'd recommend attending demonstrations to anyone with a lack of confidence in street photography!’

‘But always stay alert – things can change very quickly.’

‘Sometimes people do not want to be photographed, which is fair enough. But only very, very rarely have I am faced any sort of aggression.’

‘I am not only photographing people on the streets – I am also looking for something interesting to happen.’

‘Something that tells a story, something with some sort of  uniqueness.’

‘And maybe I'm guilty of a few street photography clichés, which probably is not such a bad thing after all!’

‘I have a Canon 5D MK2 with lots of lenses, but these days I only use a 50mm prime or 70mm-200mm zoom for shooting my family and friends outdoors.’

‘But when I concentrated on street photography, I realised bulky equipment doesn't help.’

‘People usually pay a lot more attention to big cameras –  they were asking if I was professional, or whether I was going to sell their pictures.’

‘Then I tried a Leica X Vario – a birthday present from my lovely wife! It's a small camera with fantastic image quality. On its own it perfectly fits into bag, and I had it on me almost all the time.’

‘But the absence of a viewfinder and the auto-focus performance meant it still wasn't the perfect street camera for me.’

‘But in May I won a street photography competition that was run by EyeEm and my trophy was an Olympus Pen-F. It's at least as gorgeous as a Leica, much smaller, and way better auto-focus. So from now on, I'll be shooting streets with that!’

‘When it comes to shooting in colour or black and white, it's all about my vision. Black and white can help when there are clashing colours in the frame.’