The photography bug caught me at an early age, and during the 1970s I had begun experimenting (in a very unscientific way) with photo collages and panoramas using a variety of cameras, including a cheap Polaroid and an ancient Zeiss Ikon (thanks to Chris Gibbs). However, when travelling I deliberately chose not to take a camera in order to avoid the temptation of spending more time photographing the places I visited than looking at and experiencing them. It is often a curse of the photographer to be mentally framing everything he or she sees as a potential photograph.

I still believe this was a good decision, especially when I see tourists who seem to be continuously snapping with their digital cameras and mobile phones as they rush from sight to sight without even stopping to see anything. On the other hand, I sometimes regret not having a photographic reminder of people I have known and places as they once were. And vice versa.

In New York the temptation just got too much for me and I could resist it no longer. With a borrowed Kodak Instamatic (a cheapo plastic camera with a tiny negative film, fixed lens and no control over focus or exposure) and without the aid of safety net or tripod I tried to capture something of the wonder of this vertical city. Apart from the fact that direct sunlight often does not penetrate to street level, skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building pose a particular problem for photographers as they are far too big to fit into one photo. A series of snaps joined as a panorama was the only way to get it all in. This all seems obvious now in the age of digital photography and photo-stitching software, but back then it was far from common.

The resulting small-format photos, printed by a budget commercial printer, were pretty murky. But undaunted I stuck the panoramas together. The photo collage here is one of them. I guess one day I should scan and stitch the negatives digitally, but for me this original rough-and-ready collage captures the somewhat chaotic and run-down atmosphere of New York in the early 1980s more accurately than a digitally enhanced image.