Photographer Dougie Wallace – who goes by the moniker 'Glasweegee' – grew up in what he calls “the tenements” of Glasgow. He has a knack for capturing life at its most extreme and garish, but his portraits are anything but staged: Wallace gets close to his subjects, a flash in one hand and a camera in the other, catching them in accidental, often unaware moments. Most of the time, he’s gone before they realise what’s happened.

For the past year, he has used this technique to photograph the streets of both Kensington and Chelsea and of his hometown, trying to understand why certain parts of Glasgow are worse for one’s health than a war zone – and why, just 400 miles (644km) away, life can be so long. And not just long, but plentiful.

“The difference in fortunes is not only apparent in mortality,” Wallace says of the residents in Kensington versus Glasgow, “but in the cut of their suits and coats, the accessories they carry, the way the women apply their make-up. Even their expressions tell a tale.”