A formal artist, Schinster is concerned with how pictures are made. Seemingly conceptual his work actually starts with ideas about form: such as compositional consistency, order and balance. Attracted to the relationship between his subject and the background Schinster is drawn to the idea of the perfect moment, when these two elements coalesce.

In his series "Street Drama" Schinster has used his camera and a tripod to capture images of everyone passing in front of him over the period of an hour. His method is to shoot hundreds of images of the same scene, each with different people in them, and then on his computer cut out the figures and drop them into a people-less version of the scene. The next part of the process involves eliminating people until he arrives at a composition that satisfies him. This he likens to directing an opera or a musical.

Using this method he manages to have complete control over the final compositions, though he does not add figures who did not pass through the place he photographed. In this way he can explore thoroughly the relationship between the people and the landscape they inhabit, while leaving space for the photographic surprise of a yellow jacket in Centre of Yellow or a woman checking her shoe in Panyulu Tap Dance.

Because the pictures are composites of images taken in the same place over a period of time, they have some similarity to time-lapse film or CCTV in that they do record real people in a real place. However it is the act of elimination and creative decision making that makes these images more than just documents, the artistry lies in the formal interplay between figures and their background. The role of the author is made apparent in the editing process, something difficult in a technologically based medium.

Schinster won the Troika Editions FORMAT Exposure Prize and "Street Drama" will be exhibited both at the Front Room in London from 5th October and at the FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby, UK in March 2011.