Cardiff After Dark – in pictures

Sunday 6 July 2008, 00.57 Dakowicz photographed the same few streets in Cardiff, primarily St Mary Street and Caroline Street, on a Saturday night for five years, between 2006 and 2011 Photograph: Maciej Dakowicz Sunday 16 November 2008, 00.41 On a good night, Dakowicz shot up to 500 pictures; on a bad one, only 50. Cardiff After Dark condenses those many long nights of wandering the streets and shooting into one night Photograph: Maciej Dakowicz Sunday 25 June 2006, 23.42 Photograph: Maciej Dakowicz Sunday 7 November 2010, 03.43 'I live in Cardiff but I am not from here,' says Dakowicz. 'And, though I often take a few drinks for courage, I was not partying with the people I photographed. I was on the outside watching, observing. So, yes, I am an outsider, but I also interact. I am not a sneaky photographer, trying to shoot something and then run away.' Photograph: Maciej Dakowicz Saturday 28 March 2009, 22.15 Photograph: Maciej Dakowicz Sunday 5 March 2010, 02.40 'I was surprised when I first went out in Cardiff on a Saturday,' says Dakowicz. 'I had never experienced anything like it. For me, the project has always been about nightlife in Cardiff, the town in which I live. It is very simple: me, my camera, and a street at night.' Photograph: Maciej Dakowicz Sunday 13 February 2011, 02.54 Photograph: Maciej Dakowicz Sunday 18 July 2010, 01:17 Dakowicz's pictures do not, for him, have a political or even social subtext. 'I am not really trying to say something big and meaningful through these pictures,' he says. 'I am certainly not trying to portray British society.' Photograph: Maciej Dakowicz