‘I’d never seen a woman riding a motorcycle in a dress’: Girma Berta’s best phone picture

“Serendipity plays a major role in street photography,” Girma Berta says. He shot this in Mali, but lives in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and had never seen a woman in a dress driving a motorcycle. “Not many women in Addis ride motorcycles, and those who do wouldn’t ever do so while wearing a dress.”

Berta had headed to Bamako’s outdoor market that afternoon, drawn by its “overwhelming energy”. He was taking photos of vendors when the women passed. “You never know what you might encounter, and it’s this unpredictability that makes street photography so thrilling.”

He does, however, sometimes also have a sense of disappointment. “I feel sad that most people I photograph will never see the images I create of them. Many of my subjects don’t have access to the platforms and channels where I share my work.”

When editing, Berta created the streaking patterns, sourced from the background of the photo, to reflect all the colours of Bamako. “I wanted to amplify that sense of motion I had witnessed, of travelling at high speed,” he says.