A photographer whose haunting images of rural and coastal Norfolk sell around the world has always been fascinated by urban streetscapes too, writes ROWAN MANTELL

Eastern Daily Press: WoltertonWolterton (Image: Steve Denby)

His pictures transform familiar scenes into magical, brooding places. Towers seem to grow from the ground like trees, trees spread into glowering skies, stately homes are dwarfed by the Norfolk landscape.

Steve Denby began taking photographs as a teenager and travels the world looking for subjects.

But some of his most striking pictures are of familiar places emerging from the dark edges of his photographs, like the illustrations of a haunting fairytale.

Steve's Norfolk landscapes have been popular for years - chalets on the edge of the North Sea, beachcombers and dog walkers, the water-laced land around St Benet's Level in the Broads.

Eastern Daily Press: Three's a crowdThree's a crowd (Image: Steve Denby)

However, he is fascinated by urban scenes too and has travelled the world taking pictures of city streets.

'The urban and documentary work has grown as I got older. In that time I have grown rather a large social conscience,' said 55-year Steve, who lives with his wife in Costessey.

One of his earliest memories, growing up in London, was seeing homeless people for the first time. As his father bought a newspaper at a tube station Steve found himself surrounded by people bedded down for the night in cardboard boxes.

'There were all these guys in boxes, just sleeping rough on the street. Their eyes peered out at me, as I stood bemused.'

Eastern Daily Press: Steve DenbySteve Denby (Image: submitted)

He said the moment played on his mind and many of his urban pictures are populated by people begging or sleeping on the streets.

Sometimes this is in exotic locations such as Bulgaria, Poland, Morocco, or Tunisia. Sometimes it is in Norwich.

'I have become accepted and even slightly trusted,' he said. 'I'm always walking the streets and I never, ever photograph anybody in a negative way. I will always talk to people first. Asking to take their photograph is something I work up to.'

Some of his pictures of Norwich have been used for appeals by local charities helping homeless people.

But he does not just photograph homeless people. His street scenes include shoppers and performers, crowds and solitary pedestrians.

He particularly enjoys being able to travel light, working with easily portable equipment rather than the large plate camera he uses for landscapes.

'What I learned about street photography most is that nothing is planned,' said Steve. 'You may see and image and it's there for 30 seconds and it's gone. Whereas with landscape there may be only a few days a year when the light is right and the trees are not in leaf, or whatever you need for your picture.'

He often works in infra red and said: 'It gives you a very high contrast image. Good for the patterns on the surface of the sea, or brickwork. You get surreal, ethereal images.'

Despite his success in selling pictures, photography has always been a spare time activity for Steve, who works as an aircraft engineer and has no formal photography qualifications. It means he can take the pictures he wants to take, rather than chase images which will sell.

And now, alongside the black and white landscapes, he has built up a portfolio of urban pictures. 'I do spend a lot of time photographing decay and dereliction,' he said.

He also gives talks, tutors aspiring photographers and is still experimenting himself. 'You never stop learning. Every day is a school day,' he said. 'The most important thing in the darkroom is the bin. If you are not using the bin you are not working out what is going wrong and learning from your mistakes.'

He uses film as well as digital technology and says: 'The thrill of an image slowly appearing under safelight in the developing tray, and the satisfaction of a long session in the darkroom, never seems to go.

'Often people ask what equipment I use, I tell them a little imagination and my eyes. I never tire of being out across Norfolk in the right light. You just have to keep your eyes open, as you never know what's round the next corner.'

He moved to Norfolk with his family when he was six was given his first camera at 13.

His favourite city to photograph is Paris, but he said that when he goes on holiday, as opposed to travelling specifically to take pictures, he likes taking normal family snaps. 'I think photography should be fun,' said Steve.

When he came across a street entertainer performing as Charlie Chaplin in Norwich's Gentleman's Walk he, like many onlookers, wanted to take his picture.

'I often looked at him and everybody is taking their photographs and I thought, 'He's an interesting guy and there is a good image to be had but how am I going to photograph him differently from everybody else?''

The resulting picture shows the man in full statue make-up, framed by a grid of paving stones, but kneeling and searching through his box of props. Like most of Steve's work it is black and white.

'I spent many early years shooting colour, but always had a great passion for monochrome and very rarely shoot colour these days,' he said. 'I feel we live in an age of colour but to me I find a toned monochrome print very retro, refreshing and still the most powerful form of photographic art.'

See more of Steve's landscape work is at www.stevedenby.co.uk and his urban pictures at www.monostreetlight.com