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Bring up "street art" and most people imagine the sides of buildings treated artfully—or hurriedly—with graffiti, stencils, or stickers. Thanks to the artist Slinkachu, some people may also think: "little hand painted people, left in London to fend for themselves."

For a year and a half, the photographer and artist Slinkachu—no other name needed, thanks—has posed diminutive human figures around the U.K.'s capital in positions of longing, trouble, repose, or despair.

His blog documenting the poses, appropriately titled "Little People: A Tiny Street Art Project," quickly caught on with the Web's art and whimsy-minded citizenry. It has since garnered praise both online and off. Slinkachu now has a deal with a  press to print and sell selected Little People shots. In September, he participated in a street and urban art show in Norway.

We wrote about Little People last September. Recently, we emailed the mysterious Slinkachu to see what he'd be willing to divulge about his activities since then...

Hey, Slinkachu. We had so much fun writing about Little People. Is coming up with the shots and posing the tiny figures as enjoyable as we imagine it to be?

It can be fun, especially seeing the final piece in place. A few weeks back, I was setting up an installation around a dog poo, though, and that wasn't so much fun.

Yeah, that sounds like it could be stinky. How did you first get the idea to stage these mini scenes?

The idea came to me while I was thinking about how, as adults, we very rarely explore our surroundings, especially in the city. I remember as a child I was always playing around in the dirt, finding bugs, or digging up things. But I did live in the country which probably made that easier.

So many of the images perfectly capture the lonesome feeling that can come with city life. For instance, "Dreams of Packing It In"—one of our favorites—just has this quietly mournful presence. Do you aim to capture that sentiment, or does it just happen?

In many of the images, I aim to create an almost melancholy feel. I didn't start out with this intention, but quickly realised that people were reading in to my pictures and creating scenarios for themselves. I think people feel sorry for these little guys, lost in the big city, and they can empathise with their plight.

Do you have a favorite?

My all-time favorite has to be the guy being munched by a fly.

Has anything about the site surprised you?

I've been surprised how popular it has been and how much support and good will I've received from people through emails from all over the world.

Is photography your day job, too?

No, photography isn't my day job, but I do work in the creative industry.

Your Flickr set of the Nuart installation has received more than 11,000 pageviews. Has your Web traffic continued to grow by astronomical leaps?

Whenever I get a big link, the traffic grows. Usually it stays pretty steady. I thought after a few months it would tail off, but I get pretty much the same number of visits each day on average.

When we first encountered Little People, you weren't yet selling prints. When did you start doing that? How's it going?

It is doing pretty well. I started by producing my own but now have them printed and sold through The Black Rat Press who can make them a lot bigger than I could myself. I've also been part of a few group shows here in London and also Manchester (and of course Norway, for the NuArt show) and in some I've been selling my images as one-off pieces. Hopefully I will have a solo show next year too.

Despite all this though, I still don't really see myself as a photographer... I think because the project has so much of a street element to it.

Street or not, you're definitely a photographer in our book. Thanks for talking to us, Slinkachu! 

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