Photographing strangers helped me overcome my social anxiety

Watching Tom Wilkins approach strangers on the street, many would assume he is oozing with confidence - but he's struggled with social anxiety for as long as he can remember.

Having only picked up a camera for the first time 10 months ago, a chance encounter with a stranger led Tom to start photographing the edgiest people Wales' capital has to offer.

The 36-year-old, who used to struggle with crowded places and have regular panic attacks, has built more than 70,000 followers on Instagram by sharing his encounters in the streets of Cardiff.

His main goal was to empower others and "give people a voice", said Tom, but he's helped himself in the process.

"The positive feeling you can get from giving someone a compliment and how they react to that completely outweighs any anxiety," he said.

"It becomes a high almost that gets rid of the anxiety, so I'm just chasing it."

Wanting to experience the buzz for myself, I put on the most subjectively cool blouse I own and shadowed Tom as he rooted out his subjects.

As we walked, he recalled the first time he picked up the camera: "I hadn't thought about photography before... my wife had an old camera just laying around, I picked it up, went out, absolutely loved it.

"I was walking back from Cardiff Bay to the town centre and I walked past this absolutely incredible punk woman, she looked absolutely amazing.

"I knew I had to stop her to ask for a picture, so I did.

"Just the buzz I got from the interaction, the way she smiled when I told her she looked amazing, just the whole energy from the whole thing, I knew I had to experience that again."

While Tom admitted he still gets nervous approaching people and has days where he is more anxious than others, he said he always felt better afterwards.

"Before I started doing this I struggled with crowded spaces, I was having panic attacks, having to leave places early because I couldn't handle it anymore," he said.

"Through doing this what I have managed to do is develop my own understanding of my own anxiety and that's helped me to be able to manage it better."

Walking through Queen Street on one of the first sunny days of spring, it soon became clear Tom had become a familiar face, with three out of five of the people we approached recognising his work.

One even rejected Tom at first, reaching out their hand with a "no thank you" before realising who he was.

"The reason why there is so much stigma around different people these days is that we don't interact with each other. We don't stop and talk to people we walk past in the street," said Tom.

As each person removed their headphones, so did any social masking. As an onlooker I felt the infectious positive energy that came with passing on a compliment.

Tom was first drawn to people who dress alternatively because of his wife, who dresses in that style, suffers with anxiety too.

"My wife is one of my big inspirations, she's covered in tattoos and wears big dresses," he said.

"For her, it's almost an armour. It means she can not worry about people looking at her, because she knows they are looking at her for a specific reason.

"I have tattoos on my hands, I have a tattoo on my face. Now a lot of people may walk past me and think 'oh he's not going to be a nice person' or 'he might cause trouble'.

"I'm sure anyone who knows my stuff knows that couldn't be further from the truth.

"If everyone looked the same the world would be boring, so let's celebrate the people making decisions and choices to stand out."

Many interactions have stood out to Tom along the way, but he told me one of his first stayed with him.

It was a normal encounter, but in the following days the mum of a lady he photographed reached out to him to tell him her daughter had autism and mental health issues.

Tom said the family were really concerned about her, but his interaction gave her "such a boost".

"She actually ended the message by saying 'you've saved my daughters life,' which brought tears to my eyes," he added.

It was one of the first times he realised the impact he could have and Tom said it reminded him to stay true to what he set out to achieve.

Another encounter was with Theo, who is autistic and homeless and travelled to the city in the hopes to see Tom and get some help.

Theo is now in the process of getting social housing and Universal Credit while he tries to secure a job, and Tom has kept regular contact with him, posting updates about his wellbeing to his Instagram page.

Thousands of people have been following along, with hundreds donating to help Theo and offering their encouragement and support.

"For me, a big part of what I'm doing, and because it's so widely seen now, is to try and remove any stigma that is involved for anyone in any kind of culture or subculture."

From punks to skinheads to goths, Tom's content aims to break down stereotypes and encourage people to feel confident expressing themselves.

"I think we should be raising people up who are trying to express themselves and that is a big part of what I'm trying to do.

"I'm trying to give people that voice they're craving to say what they want to say about society, about themselves, about the world.

"There are a lot of people that will message me now and say 'I love dressing like that but I'm always too scared but I've started going out and wearing this... because I've seen that people are'."

Tom also said several people had messaged him saying they decided to compliment strangers as a result of seeing his content.

"My mantra is it's not what you have been born with, it's the decisions you have made.

"I don't want it to be a beauty contest, because that's not what I'm about, it's about showing people that are cool.

"You have traditional stereotypes of what is beautiful and what's not, but who is to say that is correct.

"Anyone can be beautiful, anyone is beautiful and I think the decisions people make should be celebrated.

"People have a way they want to look artistically, it's art at the end of the day, and there are no rules with anything like that."