In 1966, junior doctor Robert Blomfield was walking through Edinburgh’s well-to-do West End area when something caught his eye. Two women had run into each other and stopped for a chat; one rested her chickens, just purchased from the butcher’s on the corner, on the pavement between them.

A keen amateur photographer, at this time, Blomfield habitually walked around with two cameras round his neck – one with a 28mm lens, the other a 50 or 105mm – on the off-chance he’d encounter something photo-worthy. “He was armed,” says his brother and archivist, Johnny Blomfield. “He was always on the lookout for a lucky shot.” He worked quickly and had covered his camera in black tape to make it less obtrusive. “But,” says his brother, “obviously he was a bit slow on this occasion – she’s got him. If looks could kill, you’ve got it there.”

Born in Sheffield in 1938, Robert balanced his passion for photography with medicine all his working life, until a stroke in 1999 forced him to retire. At one point, in the 1960s, he was on the brink of becoming a professional photographer; he had attracted the interest of the Times and John Betjeman for a project, but the opportunity fizzled out. His photos were stored in boxes until a few years ago, when his family stepped in to archive his work.

Now 80, Robert finally has his debut exhibition. How is he feeling about it all? “A mixture of both pleasure and terror, basically,” says Johnny. But his work deserves to be seen, he adds. “He was just alert to what was going on, which most people aren’t. You don’t notice these things – the witty, funny, odd things happening in the streets – but there he was, capturing them.”

Robert Blomfield: Edinburgh Street Photography, An Unseen Archive is at City Art Centre, Edinburgh, until 17 March 2019