A conversation with Mike Chudley about street photography, film, and keeping things fun
The London-based photographer and YouTuber talks about his path from skate videos to Leica rangefinders, why film feels different, and the one time someone yelled at him in NYC.
Mike Chudley is a London-based photographer and content creator who has built a community of over 100,000 YouTube subscribers drawn to his honest, down-to-earth approach to street photography. His journey with cameras started in the skateboarding scene, where he picked up a Canon 550D to film tricks at the skate park, growing obsessed with the Thrasher magazine covers and the visual culture surrounding skate and BMX.
After years of shooting action sports content, Mike shifted to street photography in 2019 and never looked back. He now shoots with Leica cameras (an M11 and an MP for film), publishes “The Focal Point” newsletter, offers 1:1 street photography workshops in London, and releases zines documenting his travels to cities like New York. His work focuses on candid moments, urban coincidences, and the quiet stories unfolding on everyday streets.
What draws people to Mike’s content is how grounded he keeps things. He talks openly about the process of shooting, the joy of using film, and the importance of keeping photography fun. In his own words: with film, you accept the mishaps, surprises, and failures along the way, and those consequences keep the work authentic.
Find Mike’s work:
Website & portfolio: mikechudley.com
YouTube channel: youtube.com/@mikechudley
The Focal Point newsletter: mikechudley.com/thefocalpoint ← super nice, I recommend subscribing!
Store (zines, presets, workshops): mikechudley.com/shop
For the sake of delivering a lightweight e-mail in your inbox, I won't post many pictures here, but you can find some pictures Mike took in his photography gallery.
Interview
Hi Mike! Thanks for accepting my interview request! I'm sure Camera Clara readers are eager to know you and learn more from you. Can you tell us a bit more about your journey with photography, and what are your photographic references? What’s a photograph that touches you every time you see?
I was introduced to photography through skateboarding. I most my teenage years skating street and riding bmx with my friends. There’s always one kid with the camera… and in this group of friends it was me.
The funny thing about skate culture is how intertwined photography/video is in the whole scene. I grew up on thrasher, sidewalk and rideuk magazines obsessing over the covers each month and video parts online from my favourite teams.
At first I was only interested in the tricks, but over time I grew more and more in appreciation of the art that came from it.
I met your work while browsing for street photography on YouTube. Your channel is growing at a nice pace with lots of deliberate and critical thinking about street photography, good taste, and nice production quality. Our readers can find your channel here and subscribe themselves! I see your channel is around 7 years old (according to the oldest public video), where you had vlogging tips, beginners guide, equipment, and things like that, and started having some film content one year ago, and nowadays, film is something that feels natural for you. When did you shoot film for the first time? Did you also feel the “wow, this is magic”? Can you tell our readers about your experience when shooting film for the first time, and if you think people should shoot more film?
I shot my first roll of film about 6 years ago, a single roll of Kodak Portra 400 in an old canon AE1 i think. I thought it was fun, but it didn’t hook me in originally. Fast forward a few more years and I love it more than ever, earlier this year i bought a leica mp so I’m fully invested at this point haha
As you get better at photography, in a weird way, you care less about the technical aspect of a photo, the rules, quality, the correct exposure (all of that matters of course, but theres a time and place) but with film, it’s more about the feeling of an image. Arguably, every photograph should be about the ‘feeling’ to some extent but film delivers you a feeling like no other format. Of course my Leica M11 and workhorse canon gear will get me the best quality i can ask for. But for documentary work, lifestyle, daily nonsense… it’s not about quality. It’s about pure documentation and I find film the most enjoyable. I am probably overthinking it really and I’m sure it’s not that deep. But the experience of shooting film is a joy. (the price is not)
I feel we are sibling content creators exploring different formats. You do video, I write text (well, you also have a cool newsletter, but I believe your main is the YT channel, right?). We both post photos along the way. Here is a post I wrote about film photography during modern times, and here’s a video in your YouTube channel called Film VS. Digital - A Creative Difference. We approached (and overlapped) some topics. I invite our readers to watch your video, and my question is: to you, what’s unique about shooting film that digital can’t capture/do?
It’s unfiltered, unexpecting in ways and you have to commit. The fact a real physical things takes place when you press the shutter button is a reminder of how precious photography is. Sometimes if you take a picture on your phone or any digital camera but something isn’t perfect, like a friend blinking, or someone’s arm is wonky or a sun flare is annoying… you can take 100 more images until you get it right, with film - we accept the mishaps and surprises and failures along the way, we deal with the consequences of film and those consequences keep it real, keep it authentic and I feel that when I view work shot on film. Of course you can still achieve everything I said on digital if you want, but people’s behaviour is different. You don’t shoot digital like you do film… because you don’t have too. You have unlimited choices on digital, you have limited choices on film and I think those limited choices improve the creative process.
I see that around 3 years ago, you switched to Fuji for street photography, then transitioned to Fuji film recipes (probably from FujiX weekly too?), and then moved to film, got a Leica MP. I have two questions about this; one is what made you move from film simulation to real film? What’s your opinion about film simulations baked in digital cameras?
Raf's personal commentary: I think that baked-in film simulations are awesome, at least to me, they were my front door to film.
I think baked-in film simulations are fun, have character and sometimes look way better than spending 20minutes trying to edit a photograph from scratch yourself. So anything that means people can enjoy their images more, I'm a fan.
Moving from the x100v and using film sims to using a leica MP and shooting real film was pretty seamless. Like I said, the experience of film is something else, especially with the leica MP - the sound, the tactile feeling, the manual experience. It’s all about the process really. The final results are cool as well, but matter less.
Do you have contact with medium format? Something tells me you’re looking for a Mamiya 7ii to make street photography on film. I do that and I can’t recommend enough! Do you think of doing some medium format film photography in the future? If so, count on me! :)
I haven’t shot much medium format at all - only when a friend has passed me their camera for a few seconds here and there. I would love to try it more though.
In which situation do you prefer shooting digital rather than film? Nowadays, what’s the digital-to-film ratio you usually practice?
I don’t think about it too much if I’m honest. The Leica M11 is also a joy to use so I’m so grateful to pick up either. Maybe, if the sun is out I’m more inclined to shoot film. Perhaps I’m a fairweather film photographer. Because a day of nice light in london is beautiful and combined with portra 400 it’s just magic haha.
Also if I know I have all day or multiple days dedicated to photography - I’ll stock up on film and make it happen. But I’m just popping to the shop or walking around locally, my M11 is the easier option to carry around.
Do you dev & scan your own film? Or do you send it to a Lab?
I use a lab, although I am interested in scanning myself. I’ll try it for an upcoming video I think as I’m sure theres lots of other people who would like to see the process of it happening, even if I don’t know what I’m doing - that might make the video more engaging haha
I guess it’s a time thing, just so much easier to get a lab to sort it out for me. I have one very close to my house so it’s so convenient.
What do you think about scanning film and including the film borders in it?
I think it’s fun when casually sharing work on instagram or something but I assume if something was to be printed and used for a gallery or at home on your walls, the film borders might be distracting. I’ve never really thought about it too much.
Have you been confronted by strangers when doing street photography? What’s your technique to sound more friendly, break the ice, and move forward with the situation without affecting your humor for the rest of your day?
Yeah, it occasionally happens - but 99% of the time everyone is lovely, polite and is simply curious, especially if you did just have a camera pretty close to their face. It makes sense that they would want to know why. I always smile, show eye contact and even mutter a word or compliment to diffuse any tension. Good body language goes a long way.
Only once, in NYC did someone yell at me pretty aggressively, but it wasn’t me specifically in that case as a few moments later they tried to fight someone else for no apparent reason. So just a bad day for that person.
Do you think that the camera you’re using affects the result of your street photography, not only in terms of quality, but also the reaction of people when they’re photographed? I know large cameras (like traditional mirrorless and DSLRs “contaminate” the scene and have higher chances of pissing out people). Do you think Leica rangefinders have a special position in this field?
Yeah the camera you use definitely has an effect on the process. The rangefinders look more approachable, even vintage in some cases so people might not be as intimidated by them. For quality, you can use any modern digital camera and get good results but an important thing for me is that it’s fun to carry around, convenient and doesn’t get in the way. The Leica M11 or X100v is relatively small and people often compliment the way it looks which sometimes helps haha.
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