Manchester Pride 2025 – Street Photography in the Thick of It

Manchester Pride 2025 – Street Photography in the Thick of It

Canal Street. Manchester Pride 2025. Robert Watson.

Manchester Pride 2025 Street Photography.

On Saturday I went out to photograph Manchester Pride, something I’ve done for the past few years. Last year was frighteningly busy along Canal Street. It was so packed that it barely felt safe. The crowd was moving so slowly that I found myself wedged in with nowhere to go. But oddly enough, that’s when the pictures came alive. Being shoulder to shoulder with people gave me just a fraction more time. Saying that, I mean a second rather than half a second to make a candid frame before someone noticed me and posed. The results were some of my favourite photographs I’ve ever taken at Pride.

As always, I shoot on film, which means I don’t get the instant feedback digital photographers rely on. I have to wait until I’m back in the darkroom, hands in the chemicals, to see if I caught the moment. That uncertainty is part of the magic for me.

This year, I wanted to push myself further. I shot the daytime as usual, but I also took a flash out at night to see what might happen. Shooting with a 28mm lens means I need to be close…very close. And with flash, that can feel intrusive. The last thing I want is to unsettle people without reason. So it was a real blow to discover, after developing my films on Sunday morning, that the flash hadn’t been syncing properly. Almost everything from the night before was just black frames.

Rather than give up, I decided to go back out on the Sunday. I’d never photographed Pride that day before, but from what I’d read it was still lively, just not quite as overwhelming as Saturday. This time, with the flash working, I shot six more rolls of film. And finally, the pictures I’d been hoping for came through.

The Sunday night work is some of my favourite photography I’ve done at any Pride. In black and white, the images strip away the rainbow spectacle you expect from Pride, and show something closer to how it feels rather than how it looks from afar. Gritty, fun, close-up and captivating. They’re full of joy and love, but they could just as easily be mistaken for photographs from another era.

That’s what I love about street photography at Manchester Pride; it’s not about chasing the colourful floats or wide shots of the parade, it’s about being right there in the thick of the crowd. Pressed up against strangers, catching those fleeting moments of laughter, intimacy, or chaos that would vanish in an instant if you weren’t looking. Pride, after all, is about people.

I’ll be sharing more from the series over the coming weeks. For me, these photographs stand as a reminder that sometimes the best work comes out of mistakes, persistence, and the willingness to get back out there. Close enough that the moments can’t escape you.

All photographs ©Robert John Watson. Reproduction in any form is not allowed without prior consent.

Photo London 2025

Photo London 2025

"The UK Photography event of the year" The Guardian

48 Hours In New York

Curated by Carrie Scott and Robert Watson

Photo London is the UK’s leading photography fair, a place where the past, present, and future of the medium meet under one roof. Held within the stately walls of Somerset House on the North bank of the River Thames, it’s a gathering of images and ideas—where the world’s most respected galleries bring work that sparks conversation, reflection, and inspiration.

This year, I’m honoured to be showing my series 48 Hours in New York with Albumen Gallery. These photographs were made in motion—on foot, on instinct, in the unrelenting rhythm of a city that never gives you the same moment twice. They sit, I hope, in conversation with the streets walked by Winogrand and Feinstein, while also tracing their own path through the present. To see this work among the energy and history of Photo London feels like bringing something full circle.

Street photography is the defining lens through which we experience the energy, rhythm, and character of New York. From Garry Winogrand’s frenetic captures of mid-century New York to Harold Feinstein’s intimate portraits of life at Coney Island, the tradition is built on immersion; on the photographer becoming an extension of the street itself. For Robert Watson, his 48 hours in New York was both a challenge and a homage to these masters, a test of endurance and instinct as he navigated the city with 27 rolls of film and a singular focus: to photograph the city in its rawest form.

Unlike his previous visits, this trip was about full immersion. Street photography, as Watson sees it, demands complete attention; no distractions, no casual strolls. It’s an intense, solitary pursuit, where the photographer must push past initial hesitations to get truly close. Shooting on film heightened the stakes. With no way to check his shots, every frame carried weight, forcing Watson to trust instinct and keep moving.

He journeyed to some of New York’s most storied locations including Herald Square and Bryant Park to wade through the dense currents of pedestrian life, and eventually, Coney Island; a setting so rich with photographic history that it felt almost surreal to walk in the footsteps of those who had come before him. The boardwalk, the sun, the crowds; this was a New York that pulsed with nostalgia and contemporary reality all at once.

Over the course of two days, Watson battled the challenges of new terrain, the shifting moods of the city, and the internal pressure to perform. What emerged is a body of work that speaks to the heart of street photography. It is spontaneous, unpredictable, and deeply human. This is an experiment in both documenting place, and a personal testament to the power of being fully present behind the lens.

Carrie Scott

Art Historian & Curator

London Santacon 2024

London Santacon 2024

When Santa says Merry Christmas, he means it.

How did it all start?

Well, to be perfectly honest, I have no idea. How it started for me though was when I chanced upon a scene on the South Bank of the river Thames last year. It was about thirty or forty Santas outside The Founder’s Arms. They were all rather drunk and I snapped a picture of one being given a drink out of a bottler of Bailey’s.

Who on Earth drinks a bottle of Bailey’s on a pub crawl? Oh…Santa, that’s who.

This piqued an interest so I did some digging and learned about ‘Santacon’.

It’s a Christmas pub crawl where everyone is dressed as Santa. Now, ‘dressed as Santa’ is a very basic description of the dress code. As long as it’s not just a hat and a Christmas jumper the organisers say. Apart from that, it seems that anything goes.

And pretty much anything and everything is drunk too. Although as mentioned above, I’m not sure a bottle of Bailey’s is the ideal companion in your stomach on a pub crawl.

This year’s crawl started off at Paddington Basin at 1100. Very quickly Santa was on the pop. Quaffing copious quantities of whatever was on offer. Each Santa had many provisions. Bottles, cans, you name it, Santa had it. I even noticed another bottle of Bailey’s. Maybe it was the same Santa with a strong stomach as last year.

After many cries of ‘What do we want?…Christmas. When do we want it?…Now.’ Santas were on their way.

One of the more surreal parts of Santacon is that at points, a couple of hundred Santas have to get from A to B. This is sometimes via The Tube. People’s faces as this mass of jolly, drunken Santas were an absolute joy to behold. Everyone we passed had their phones up filming (I don’t know what the collective noun for many Santas is) this Christmas procession.

I had to make my excuses and leave as Santa crossed The Thames from Blackfriars to head onto The South Bank as I had a meeting to go to with my gallery. The party continued on though with Discord alerts telling me that Santa had finally arrived in Trafalgar Square.

Maybe I’ll visit again next year. Maybe I’ll shoot some colour film. All these pictures were shot with my Leica M6 on my preferred Kodak Tri-X black and white film as I’m not a fan of colour. We’ll see.

Thankfully the weather Gods were kind to Santa and I think that much fun was had all around.

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