Elmeyer Dance Academy, Vienna, Austria. November 2003.

The dance academy is a rite of passage for middle class Viennese teenagers. For one or two evenings a week they attend one of the many establishments in the city and learn to waltz, fox-trot, quick-step and pasa-doble – and of course get to grips with the opposite sex. Using the lens I do means I have to be quite close to my subject, and it takes a little while before they are comfortable with me. Very soon, though, it’s as if I’m not there.

Michaelerplatz, Vienna, Austria. October 2003.

Belief in balance and conformity is something of a tradition in Vienna, and you frequently see expressions of it as you walk around the city. I enjoy taking pictures in the flat light of northern Europe at this time of year, so much less demanding than the searing, knife-like light of the Mediterranean. I find myself seeing different things when the light is soft, more how things actually look and not how the light makes things look.