Whilst I was in Cape Town, I attended a conversation as part of the 2026 Cape Town Photography Festival on street photography. Broadly speaking, the topic was: ‘The street as a stage’. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to sit through this hour-long discussion between Quaniet Richard and Patrick de Mervelec. I’d already had a look at some of Quaniet’s work and I must say that what he was doing was light years away from my own work. I’m not talking about quality, but about philosophy… I’ll come back to that. As for Patrick, I didn’t know what to expect. He doesn’t really do street photography. Which explains why I hesitated before going along…