A walk down Surreal Street

Paul Crowley draws on his graphic designer’s eye to capture scenes from the country to the street, all tinged with surreality

- Sandra Smith

The impact of Paul Crowley’s formative years in Hertford, where the family home backed on to cornfields and woodland, was so positive that, following a stint in the capital, he was lured back to the county town and its palpable sense of community and history. ‘Hertford is a great place. Growing up here was an idyllic experience,’ he says. His childhood influenced him in other ways too. An interest in photography first developed in his youth when browsing through the many photographs taken by his father during service in the Merchant Navy. ‘I always had lots of imagery around me. Then as a student at Barnet Art College I got to taste everything.’

Now a director of a design agency, he carries his passion for photography into his own time – capturing night time images that reveal Hertford at perhaps its most unexpected and beautiful. He is also drawn to the grittier side of life. While reminiscing over family photographs following the death of his father, Paul decided to take on a street project in 2016 of a different kind – taking photos for a year during his daily commute to King’s Cross. It became an obsession.