Photo/System

This was the second project that Benjamin Hayward and I completed on our trip to Budapest. It was 2009 and the age of the smartphone was really beginning, putting a camera into everybody’s pocket. We felt like we were entering a new era of photography where more people were taking more photos than ever before. But were they any good?

Inspired by this thought, Ben and I became interested in the idea of taking ‘non-photos’ of a city, to avoid generic landmarks and clichés that might be captured by the average tourist. Before we set off, we devised a rigorous grid system that would generate random locations on a map, and determine in which direction to point the camera.

The resulting set of images creates a unique portrait of the city. It was a liberating project; we found many of the photographs to be very successful compositions, despite being free of any artistic input.

We compiled the images into a simple photo book, and then we also applied the same system to UK cities.