The Dare Photography Podcast

Summary:The Street Thief returns with a full-frame confession: making a photo zine is beautiful chaos. In this episode Gary Lashmar dives into the year-long brawl behind his new zine Smudge—a second-album project haunted by creative procrastination, deadline dodging, and that inner critic that whispers “not good enough.”Gary unpacks the late-night edits, the false starts, and the punk realisation that a photo zine only comes alive when you stop waiting for perfect light and hit print. He riffs on how community keeps you accountable, why fear hides inside “productive stalling,” and how finishing matters more than flawless execution.Whether you’re dreaming up your first photo zine or battling your own creative delays, this episode is your gritty push to finish what you started.THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x.

Just back from my fifth trip to New York City, and every time I land there it still feels like I’ve walked onto a giant film set. Maybe it’s a British thing—growing up in the 70s and 80s we didn’t have Hollywood blockbusters of our own. We had gritty “kitchen-sink” realism from directors like Mike Leigh and Ken Loach.Brilliant films, but hardly escapist. For real cinematic magic we looked to American movies—The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, The Warriors, Rocky—stories that turned New York into myth. Add in the comics I devoured—Batman, Spider-Man, Superman—and the city became a dreamscape of impossible skylines and wild possibility.Walking the streets with a camera in 2025 still hits that same nerve. In Coney Island, the fun-fair rides, neon signs and battered boardwalk feel like they’re waiting for a director to shout “Action!” As a street photographer, I’m not staging anything, but I am composing life as if I’m framing a shot in a film. That’s the thrill: you’re directing without actors, chasing moments where reality and cinema collide.I’ve always said my photography is influenced more by cinema than traditional photography. I grew up watching movies, not poring over photo books. Even now I probably watch more films than I browse photo sites. Wide lenses let me move in close—right into the scene—like a cinematographer putting the camera center-stage. I want viewers to wonder, how did he get that shot? That cinematic tension drives every click of the shutter.Good cinema feeds great photography. I talk about this in my Dare Photography Workshops: a steady diet of films—blockbusters and arthouse—shapes how you see light, shadow, and story. Don’t dismiss so-called popcorn films either. The Terminator, made on a shoestring budget, is a masterclass in atmosphere and visual storytelling. Movies like that train your eye to find drama in ordinary streets.So if you’re chasing cinematic street photography, here’s my challenge: watch more movies. Study framing, pacing, and light. Then hit the streets and treat each frame like a still from your own film. Whether you’re in London, New York, or anywhere else, you can create a sense of scale and narrative that turns everyday life into a moving picture.Join our community on Instagram—@the_street_thief and @idaretoshoot. Tag your work with #idaretoshoot and we might feature it in our stories or on the grid.This episode dives into that cinematic street-photography mindset—how movies shaped the way I shoot, why New York street photography always feels epic, and how you can borrow the language of film to push your own images further. Grab your camera, queue up a classic film, and start making your own movie—one frame at a time.THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x

Summary:In this podcast Lashmar, aka the Street Thief chats with Singer Songwriter Max Bianco about his upcoming new album recorded at the Albion Rooms in Margate. The recording is a bit shambolic - audio is not the best but I think you'll love it nonetheless. We get to talking about the Libertines, Life, Bob Dylan, why I can't play the Harmonica and also how we first met. THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x.

Summary:Street Photography isn’t about wandering aimlessly with a camera — it’s about discipline. What you need is a set of photographer rules or guidelines. The kind that forces you into challenges, constraints, and corners until you start seeing what others miss. In this episode, “A Set of Photography Rules for Creative Freedom,” we dig into why limitations can unlock your best work, how rules sharpen your eye, and why discomfort is the quickest way out of a creative brick wall.If you’ve been stuck, sleepwalking through shoots, this one’s a wake-up call. Creative freedom doesn’t come from doing whatever you want — it comes from giving yourself rules strong enough to break you open.THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x.

Summary:In this video Lashmar, aka the Street Thief, talks about his honeymoon in Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans and Vegas with his bride Katie. He gets into talking about shooting the Ricoh and how he has a love hate relationship with the camera but is back on good terms with it. He also gets into the corporate Disneyworld which is vegas, Sun Studios, Gracelands, the Civil Rights Musuem and how people are more willing to have their portrait taken in the USA. THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x.

This podcast is a little different from the usual as it's two days before Gary Lashmar, aka the Street Thief, marries his beautiful bridge Katie Dwight. They chat and never fear ... they're still keeping it real and keeping it raw. THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x.

Summary: Ever notice how your best frames happen when you are not worried or freaking out. This episode drifts through the messy brilliance of accidents, the gift of relaxing into your shoot, and why gripping too tight strangles your shots.Takeaways:Perfect is boring.Weird light, or bad timing can be pure gold.Why it’s important not to overthink photography full stopStreet-level philosophy on art, life, and letting the mess happen.THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x

In this episode, I ramble through two days spent at the Albion Rooms in Margate with Max and a band of beautiful scoundrels. I talk vampires in the studio, ghosts in the attic, and how — whether I'm shooting musicians, streets, or strangers — my photography approach never really changes. Same eye. Same mischief. Same hunt for the raw bits nobody else sees.You'll hear stories of bacon sarnies that saved my soul, studio lulls that stretch forever, and how street instincts creep into every backstage frame. Also: a tiny glimpse at the documentary I've been accidentally shooting for six years.Mentions:Max’s haunting new tunesCharlie Buford’s upcoming albumZ.Z. Top refusing to be on a scheduleThe weird magic of Margate streets (and cafés that smell like old dreams)Takeaway:It doesn’t matter if I’m in a dingy alley or a velvet-draped studio — the hunt is the same. The mischief is the same. That’s the real thrill of photography.THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x.

The Dare Photography Podcast is back — still proudly not sponsored by Squarespace, Sony or any other bollocks.In this episode, Gary fires up about why YouTube keeps burying his best work and why the blandest, safest crap always seems to rise to the top. He talks about the Albion Rooms and an upcoming shoot with Max Bianco ahead of his new album recording with guest Pete Doherty, calls out all the gear-chasers who think you can buy better vision, and breaks down how forcing a square format totally tripped him up.He also gets real about how life (like getting married soon) spills into your photos whether you like it or not, how we’re all quietly dealing with our own mess, and what’s coming up — from London street portraits to a camera-packed honeymoon.Plus: savage listener questions on shooting close, getting strangers to say yes, and why he sticks to London over more ‘exotic’ places like Cuba or Morocco. Spoiler: it’s not because he’s lazy.THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x.

Welcome back to The Dare Photography Podcast — the world’s most disruptive photography podcast. Probably.In this episode, Gary Lashmar (aka The Street Thief, The Smudge with a Grudge, and The Johnny Cash of Street Photography) answers the raw, uncomfortable, and often hilarious questions photographers are too afraid to ask in public.Is there real money in street photography, or is it all smoke, mirrors, and Instagram likes? What does it actually take to build a zine that feels like you? And are most people just hiding behind “ethics” because they’re scared to take the shot?From photographing famous faces like The Libertines and Rob Beckett, to dissecting the myths of creative success, Gary brings 16 years of street grit, hard-earned wisdom, and no-nonsense guidance.If you’ve ever wrestled with fear, fame, ethics, or Photoshop layers at 3AM — this one’s for you.THE DARE PHOTOGRAPHY WHATSAPP COMMUNITYTo gain entry to our WhatsApp community, contact Gary and Katie via the webpage:Community Page LinkWEBSITElashmarcreative.comINSTAGRAM• The Street ThiefInstagram• Dare (idaretoshoot)InstagramTHE INSPIRATION SHOT (weekly photography inspiration)Inspiration ShotZINESThe Way of the Street PhotographerBooks & ZinesMusic by Max BiancoInstagramThank you for SUBSCRIBING.Lashmar (aka the Street Thief)x.