Everyone should be allowed to indulge in a passion

Great Junction Street, Leith, 2004 by Alan Wilson.

To look at the work of Alan Wilson, you would be forgiven for thinking that he was a professional photographer with years of professional experience behind him. So never before could a truer statement be made than - just because an artist is not being paid and therefore not professional, doesn't mean they do not create professional work; some truly awe-inspiring photography can be produced by those photographers such as Alan who are happy to remain amateur.

"I'm an amateur, and that's the way I'd prefer to keep it. Street photography is very much a labour of love; it's what I do at weekends to relax. I photograph the things that interest me or that I've connected with in some way. Photography for me is both recreation and meditation. Very simply my photographs describe the world I see around me. I'm happy to be published but if turning professional meant following a clients brief then I doubt whether my heart would be in it."

Born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1954, Alan studied IT and worked in Belfast for a few years in the mid-70's before moving to Edinburgh in 1978, where he has been ever since. It was in Edinburgh that he started visiting galleries and going to exhibitions and although interested in photographs it was initially paintings that fascinated him.

"When I left Northern Ireland in 1978 at the age of 23 I'd never set foot in a gallery of any description, there just wasn't the opportunity. Walking into the National Gallery of Scotland blew me away, to see paintings by Rembrandt, El Greco, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh opened my eyes and set me on a fairly steep learning curve. There were still very few photography exhibitions back then so it was quite a few years before I awoke to the possibilities and had enough free time myself to start taking photography a bit more seriously."

Multrees Walk, Edinburgh 2008 by Alan Wilson.

Alan's interest in photography, originally began back in the 60's when he was about 10-years-old and found a pile of old family negatives stored away.

"They were mostly 120 film, shot with a Box Brownie. I found them along with developing dishes and contact printing frames, belonging to an older brother who had moved away. I don't remember how I learned to make contact prints from the negatives but the magic of seeing images appear on the paper was the start of it. Then later, when I was about 14 I picked up basic black and white darkroom techniques in one of the science labs after school."

But for many years, due to various sporting activities, photography took something of a back seat for him.

"It wasn't until around 1995/96, when I was about 42 and had some free time on my hands that I took up photography with something of a passion and for some reason, which escapes me now, it was street photography, although at the time I didn't know there was such a genre."

Alan sees Street Photography as shooting ordinary, everyday events that don't really register with people as they go about their everyday lives. And although being a genre he never really knew much about to begin with, it is something that he has grown to love.

Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, 2004 by Alan Wilson.

"I should first of all say that I have never learned to drive - it never interested me. I've always worked within walking distance or a single bus journey; I have always had a natural curiosity for what was going on around me. I'd seen photographs by Robert Frank and Bill Brandt and felt this was the sort of thing I wanted to do. As a fairly shy person I enjoyed the anonymity the city streets offered me, and there was the problem, I had to either overcome my shyness or go off and do something else. Gradually I built enough confidence to photograph strangers in the street and it was then that I realised just how addictive the adrenalin rush could be."

Inspiration for his work tends to be dictated by his mood, but photographing the streets it seems is something, which is never uninspiring.

"The streets are full of raw material, it's just a matter of putting in the miles and being curious about what's happening all around, or to quote Walker Evans, stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long."

Walker Evans however, is not the only photographer who has had an influence on Alan's work.

Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, 2008 by Alan Wilson.

"I think it began with Walker Evans; I liked the simplicity of his architectural shots whether a wooden church or a sharecropper's home and then there were the street graphics, the hand painted signs. Everything he did seemed to appeal to me. Through Evans I discovered Robert Frank and Eugene Atget. When I was shooting black and white film I tended only to look at photographers known for that."

Switching to colour at the start of 2007, began a whole new learning curve for him, and with it came a whole knew crop of influences.

"People like Stephen Shore, Alec Soth, Joel Sternfeld and closer to home, Martin Parr. With Parr it was not necessarily his photographs that I admired but rather his enthusiasm and sheer energy he put into his work; he's photographer, author, collector and curator."

Alan's passion for street photography has taken him down practically every street within a five-mile radius of Prince Street in Edinburgh, but this doesn't mean he plans to stop visiting those same streets.

Red Flags, Princes Street, Edinburgh, 2008 by Alan Wilson.

"There are certain streets and areas in Edinburgh that I call by on an almost weekly basis. By revisiting the same streets I feel at home in them, I can relax and the people who live and work there know me and leave me to get on with taking pictures."

I ended the interview by asking Alan where he thinks the direction of street photography will go in the future and if he had any plans for his own personal direction.

"I do what I do, and what I do evolves - very slowly. I continue to shoot whatever catches my eye. Where street photography might go in the future is anyone's guess, though I do think the golden age is past and what is emerging in some areas of street photography are ‘constructed' images. I'm thinking of people like Gregory Crewdson and on a smaller scale and a bit closer to home, Hannah Starkey."

Check out Alan's website to see more of his work.