TITLE : CIPHER CITY
PHOTOBOOK
AUTHOR : StreetMax
At first glance, this is a book about street photography.
True enough, the subject matter has been gleaned from the streets of London over the period from 2010 to 2025.
The traditions of street photography appear to be intact given the everyday look of the peopled scenes presented.
On closer inspection, the people who, according to other commentators, appear shrouded in “deafening silence” as they walk in “constellations”, leave the viewer with the uneasy impression that the photographs have been staged.
The people filling the images have a rhythmic arrangement which lends an air of unreality to the work.
Yet, this is not the result of staging, but of a rigorous approach to composition consisting of long periods of waiting and precise timing.
By employing this slow technique, StreetMaxattempts to create tension between appearance and reality, leading the viewer to assume incorrectly that the photographs are manipulated when they have, in fact, been shot in real time. This challenges the viewer to further interpret the photographic evidence and ponder where the boundary between artifice and observation lies.
By jolting our expectations in this way, StreetMax brings new life to an old genre and questions assumptions of what it is we really see.
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ABOUT StreetMax :
StreetMax’s street photography has been shown in festivals and group shows internationally.
Selected as a Juror’s Pick in LensCulture’s Street Photography Awards in 2017, he was also the series winner at PHoS Athens, and the Best Series winner at
Streetfoto, San Francisco that year.
In 2019, he won the Street categories of the Neutral Density and Pollux Awards.
His work has been shown in galleries in the UK, US, Hungary,
Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain and Germany. He was a top 50 photographer in Photolucida Critical Mass 2023, and a Talent in Fresh Eyes 2024.
His book “Cipher City” was published in late Spring 2026.
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