A Small Voice: Conversations With Photographers

London-born British photographer Marc Wilson's images document the memories, histories and stories that are set in the landscapes that surround us. His long term documentary projects include The Last Stand (2010-2014), A Wounded Landscape - bearing witness to the Holocaust (2015-2021) and The Land is Yellow, the Sky is Blue (2021-2023).Marc's aim is to tell stories through his photography, focusing at times on the landscape itself, and the objects found on and within it, and sometimes combining landscape, documentary, portrait and still life, along with audio recordings of interviews and sounds, to portray the mass sprawling web of the histories and stories he is hoping to tell.Marc has published 6 photo books - Travelogue 2 (2024), The Land is Yellow, the Sky is Blue (2023), Remnants (2022), A Wounded Landscape - bearing witness to the Holocaust (2021), Travelogue 1 (2018), and The Last Stand (2014).Solo exhibitions include those at Impressions Gallery, Bradford, Side Gallery, Newcastle, The Royal Armouries Museum and Focal point Gallery in the UK and Spazio Klien in Italy.Marc's work has been published in journals and magazines ranging from National Geographic, FT Weekend, Leica LFI, Source, Raw Magazine, Wired, Dezeen and others, he also works as a visiting lecturer at various universities in the UK and has given talks about his work both in the UK and abroad.In episode 256, Marc discusses, among other things:What he's working onGetting arrested in MoldovaHis work in UkraineNew book Travelogue 2 - A Thousand Days of LongingTravelling 25,000 miles for his project The Last StandHis initial failed attempt at shooting his holocaust project A Wounded LandscapeHis adventures in self-publishing and tips for those considering itHis route into photographyLoneliness and ‘wandering lost'His project RemnantsWebsite | Instagram Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Mackenzie Calle is a freelance documentary photographer and National Geographic Explorer based in Brooklyn. In 2024, she was awarded first prize in the World Press Photo Open Format category award (North & Central America) for her project the Gay Space Agency, and was a finalist for the Sony World Photography Awards.She was selected as a Magnum Foundation Counter Histories Fellow in 2022. That same year, she was named one of the Lenscratch 25 to Watch and was shortlisted for the PhMuseum Women Photographers Grant. In 2023, she was named as a Lens Culture Emerging Talent Award winner and received the Dear Dave Fellowship.Mackenzie is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Cinema Studies and was awarded the Director's Fellowship to attend ICP's Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism Program. She was selected to Eddie Adams Workshop class XXXV. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at CUNY's College of Staten Island. Prior to her freelance career, she was a photo producer at NBC Universal. Her work has been exhibited at Fotografiska Stockholm, Photoville, Pride Photo Festival, and Noorderlicht International Photo Festival. Clients include National Geographic, The Washington Post, GAYLETTER, Discovery, MSNBC, and The Wall Street Journal.  In episode 255, Mackenzie discusses, among other things:Winning the WPP open categoryTangible and intagible benefits of winningHer journey to photographyHow the idea for the Gay Space Agency came aboutHow she set about making images to tell the storyThe goal to disseminate the story as widely as possibleHer experience of doing the Eddie Adams WorkshopLetting the story tell her what it wantsExperimentation being the fun partHer love of sport......and TV Referenced:Sally RideFrancis FrenchBillie Jean KingChristina De MiddelErika Larson Website | Instagram“For me, it's letting the story tell me what it needs. So it's not so much going in with a preconceived notion. You obviously go into most stories with some idea of what you're going to do, but every idea I have, that work in itself almost reveals or tells me kind of what it should be. So sometimes that means fiction, sometimes that does mean straight photojournalism, sometimes that means entirely imagined and staged projects…” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Tomasz Tomaszewski has a Ph.D from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and is a member of the Union of Polish Art Photographers, the Visum Archiv Agency of Hamburg, Germany, the National Geographic Creative Agency of Washington D.C., and the American Society of Media Photographers.He specializes in journalistic photography and has had his photos published in major newspapers and magazines worldwide including National Geographic Magazine, Stern, Paris Match, GEO, New York Times, Time, Fortune, Elle, Vogue. He has also authored a number of books, including Remnants: The Last Jews of Poland, Gypsies: The Last Ones; In Search of America, In the Centre, Astonishing Spain, A Stone's Throw, Overwhelmed by the Atmosphere of Kindness, Things that last, and has co-illustrated over a dozen collective works.He has held numerous individual exhibitions in the USA, Canada, Israel, Japan, Brazil, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Indonesia and Poland. Tomasz is the recipient of many Polish and international awards for photography. For over thirty years he has been a regular contributor to National Geographic Magazine USA in which eighteen of his photo essays have been published. Tomasz has taught photography in Poland, the USA, Germany and Italy.Tomasz's most recent book, The World Is Where You Stop was published in 2023 by Blow Up Press. In episode 254, Tomasz discusses, among other things:His insecurity about his EnglishTruthThe wisdom of ageHis father's advice ‘don't forget about art'ProgressHis discovery of photographySpending five years working on his first book, smuggled to the states and published in NY.Spending time in the USAHis new book The World Is Where You StopMetaphorPhotography not being dialecticalThe appeal of a good single maltHis teaching academyBravery as the mother of all qualitiesHis dream to play the piano and how music is pure mathematicsReferenced:Raymond ChandlerAristotleUffizi MuseumSusan SontagNasim TalebJames NachtweyGarry WinnograndCartier BressonKeith Jarrett Website | Instagram | Interview in ‘Hot Mirror' “Most of the time when I was working for Geographic, I wanted my photographs to serve a purpose, to tell a story, or explain a person to another human being. But this time I only wanted to capture surprise, maybe, wonder, occassionally joy, amusement, but also discomfort. In short, anything but a desire to tell a story.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Katrin Koenning is a visual artist from Germany whose work travels across still and moving images and text, at times including found materials, painting and collage. Pursuing intimacy and interconnection her work centres around practice as relational encounter. Most stories evolve through years and use returning as a way of drawing closer. Different series often intersect, merging in and out of each other. In her extended image-dialogues, Katrin uses fragments and slippages to suggest narrative spaces, communities and lived experiences that are allied, fluid and multiplicit. Many of her series render non-human human entanglement and intimate kin, positing imaginaries with a greater-than-human world.Katrin has been the recipient of multiple awards, such as the Bowness Photography Prize. Her work is regularly exhibited in Australian and international solo and group exhibitions including presentations at Ishara Art Foundation Dubai, Chobi Mela, Paris Photo, Hamburg Triennial of Photography, Museum of Australian Photography, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Australian Centre for Photography and the National Gallery of Victoria (2023). Koenning's images have been published in The New Yorker, Vogue.com, Zeit Magazine, The Guardian, New York Times, Esquire Italy, Der Spiegel, Yucca Magazine, California Sunday and many other places. Her work is held in numerous institutional and private collections both in Australia and abroad; most recently her large-scale installation While the Mountains had Feet [2020 — 2022] was acquired in whole by the National Gallery of Victoria.Katrin regularly teaches workshops in photographic practice and thinking, working closely with many institutions and festivals locally and across the Asia-Pacific region such as Angkor Photo Festival (Siem Reap Cambodia), Photo Kathmandu (Kathmandu, Nepal), The Lighthouse (Calcutta, West Bengal), Myanmar Deitta (Yangon, Myanmar), Australian Centre for Photography, Perth Centre for Photography, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Museum of Australian Photography,  Palmtree Workshops (Santorini Greece, forthcoming),  and others.Katrin lives and works in Naarm (Melbourne) on unceded Boon Wurrung Woi Wurrung Country. In episode 253, Katrin discusses, among other things:Ankor Photo Festival in CambodiaWorking on her practice dailyComing out of “the most difficult year of her life”Why she chose to shoot Polaroids during that timeResponding to the suicide of her cousin's husbandHow the sudden death of her best friend put her on the path of photographyHow she took pictures with the camera she inherited from him which were all blankHaving a ‘web' of ‘projects'Her practice as a relational encounterHer new book Between The Skin and SeaHer engagement with environmental issuesYounger photographers being more inward lookingHer current engagement with the indigenous community of Riverdale Referenced:Photo KatmanduChobi MelaRMITNational Gallery of Victoria Website | Instagram “This is always the way that I work, I look at what the thing is that is at stake, and what am I trying to talk about? And actually also very much like I'm listening to the thing that I'm trying to talk to. So what does it want from me? You know, what does the story want from me and what does the situation around it ask of me? And therefore how do I need to approach it?” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Ian Macdonald (b. 1946) is an internationally acclaimed photographer born and raised in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, UK. He studied Graphic Design and Printmaking at Teesside College of Art in 1968 and went on to study Painting and Photography at Sheffield School of Art, Photography and Graphic Design at Birmingham Polytechnic and Education at Lancaster University. He pursued photography alongside drawing – his first love - painting and printmaking.Since 1968, Ian has consistently photographed the people and places of Teesside, one of Europe's most heavily industrialised areas in the north east of England. His love of the region, the beauty of the landscape – great expanses of wildness nestling among industrial settings - and his solid admiration for the people working and living amongst this environment has resulted in a completely honest and passionate depiction of a place and its community.“The most successful of my photographs seem to be a product of an exploration into my environment and the people I live and work amongst and an excitement generated in me by what I confront. Sometimes by-product would seem a more appropriate term, because only rarely do images really come near to saying anything about the strength, humour, vitality, atmosphere, pathos and despair which seems to make up what goes on around us all. Always, I am spurred on by a tingling sensation at the possibility, this time, perhaps, the image may really say something”.Ian's work has been included in various publications, such as England Gone, Smith's Dock Shipbuilders, Images of the Tees, Eton and The Blast Furnace. His work has been exhibited internationally and is included in many private and public photography collections around the world. In 2024 Ian had a major retrospective entitled Fixing Time, covering the first twenty years of his work, displayed across two venues in the north east of England - Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens and Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art.Ian is currently working on a series of forthcoming books with GOST Books. In episode 252, Ian discusses, among other things: His recent dual exhibitions, Fixing Time, in the North East of EnglandHow his fascination for drawing took him to art collegeHis discomfort with his work being put in the documentary pigeonholeFinding it hard to approach your subjectsA brief description of the area he grew up and photographed inHis transition from drawing to photographyGreatham Creek and the portrait (above) that made him excitedHis early memories of his grandfather and father and wanting to celebrate and document their historyHis year spent as artist in residence at Eton CollegeHis reasons for choosing to teach in a school and not at art college Referenced:Len TabnerCesare PaveseBruce DavidsonBill BrandtVic Allen, Dean Clough GalleryGraham SmithMartin ParrChris KillipTom WoodMax BeckmanGoyaTitianDelacroixWebsite | Short film about Ian by Jamie Macdonald“When I first went to Greatham Creek, there was no history anywhere about it. I couldn't find anything written down. So I wrote a lot down. I talked to people. I went into pretty deep research into archives in the local library and stuff like that. And I guess this was part of the drive for [photographing] both the shipyard and the furnace. Because maybe I did have an inkling, because there was nothing about the creek - where's the stuff about the furnace?… about the men who worked there, like my dad and granddad? Where is their history? And I wanted to celebrate their history. I wanted to celebrate what they were. I wanted a record, a document, a memory of them. And that's what drove me to do it.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

British photographer Mike Abrahams has worked as a freelance photographer for over 40 years having become renowned for his sensitive eye in documenting the lives of ordinary people often in extraordinary situations.In 1981 he was a cofounder of Network Photographers the Internationally renowned picture agency and his work has taken him around the world. His photographs have been published in all the major international news media. In 2024, Mike's much anticipated book This Was Then, was published by Bluecoat Press and has been described as a lyrical portrait of humanity in adverse circumstances. It features photographs taken from 1973 to 2001 in cities from Liverpool to Glasgow. Blackburn to Bradford, Northern Ireland to the coalfields of Kent and London.Mike's work on Faith - A Journey with Those Who Believe, published in 2000, was the culmination of five years work, documenting the extremes and passion of Christian devotion throughout fourteen countries. Awards for this work included the World Press Photo Award in 2000, and the book Faith designed by Browns, was a finalist in the Design Week - Editorial Design: Books. It has been widely exhibited throughout the UK and Europe.Colin Jacobson, picture editor of The Independent Magazine, described Mike's body of work from the conflict in Northern Ireland and published in the book Still War, in 1989 as "Documentary photography at its best - imaginative, comprehensive, confident and concerned". His coverage of the troubles in Northern Ireland was the subjects of a Television documentary Moving Stills.Other important assignments have included coverage of the division of Cyprus, Migrant labour in Southern Africa, the Intifada in the Occupied Territories, the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the rise in the influence of the religious in Israeli politics, the Cult of Assad in Syria, Northern Ireland and documenting Another Britain. In episode 251, Mike discusses, among other things:Discovering the darkroom at 12Growing up in post-war LiverpoolThe infamous Toxteth Riots of the early 80sNetwork Photographers agencyThe story of the IRA bombingHis interest in religious ceremonyGoing back to his archive of British work for the new book, This Was ThenThe impetus behind itThe sustainability of of a long-term careerPersonal work that he is still doingReferenced:Eugene SmithDavid Douglas DuncanLarry BurrowsTim PageNetwork PhotographersJohn SturrockMike GoldwaterJudah PassowChris DaviesLaurie SparhamSteve BenbowMartin SlavinBarry LewisRed SaundersSid SheltonRoger HutchinsChris KillipDaniel MeadowsPeter MarlowPeter Van AgtmaelWebsite | Instagram“You can go here, there and everywhere, and I have travelled a lot and it's been interesting and fascinating, but you're always the outsider coming in. You don't really know the story. It's glamorous, it's exotic, it's fascinating, but I think it's much harder to photograph your home turf. You come to it with quite an honest perspective. It's the land you're living in, you're conscious of the differences in the country between the north, south, east and west, the regions… it's kind of embedded in you, the differences.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Joseph Michael Lopez - JML, (b. 1973) is an independent photographer born in New York City to a Puerto Rican father and a mother who escaped the Cuban Revolution in 1967. He earned his MFA in 2011 at Columbia University. Lopez began his career as an analog cinematographer on the critically acclaimed Bruce Weber film, Chop Suey (2001). Currently, Joseph divides his time between long-form projects, teaching, and commercial work. His photographs have appeared on the covers of M, The Magazine for Leica M Photography, Leica Fotografie International, The Sunday Review of The New York Times, New York magazine and The New Yorker, among others.Joseph's photographs were on exhibit in “Cuban Photography after 1980: Selections from the Museum's Collection”, at The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. In 2016, a commissioned series of his photographs of New York neighborhoods, “New York at Its Core: Future City Lab”, was installed at The Museum of the City of New York. Photographs from JML NYC, the series from which this commission originated, have also been published in the book Bystander: A History of Street Photography, by Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz. JML's first book JML NYC 02-23 was published by GOST in the fall of 2024.  In episode 250, Joseph discusses, among other things:Relocating to Rome from NYCHis intro to NYC via assisting Bruce WeberHis early career as a professional assistantShooting with his Leica as a ‘coping mechanism'The challenge of creating a cohesive narrative from 20 years of single imagesHis Dear New Yorker projectWhy B&W is where his heart is atHow what we see is who we areHis approach towards light and sunUsing digital vs. filmAssisting Mitch EpsteinHow his opinion on grad school has changedControversy surrounding Columbia University prof. Thomas RomaHis plans for working in Rome and going forward Referenced:Bruce WeberDanny Lyon, Knave of HeartsTodd PapageorgeChuck Kelton's darkroomMitch EpsteinThomas RomaMohammad Rasoulof Website | Instagram“Essentially, it's about saying something and having a voice and having a perception of the world that is, like singing a loud song you know, your pictures have to say something. And how do you separate yourself from all the noise that's out there already? You have to have an obsessive, empahtic way to perceive things. I think to a certain extent what we see is who we are in a way.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Dina Litovsky is a Ukrainian-born photographer living in New York City since 1991. Dina's imagery can be described as visual sociology. Her work explores the idea of leisure, often focusing on subcultures and social gatherings.Dina is a regular contributor to National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, New Yorker, GQ and New York Magazine. In 2020 Dina won the Nannen Prize, Germany's foremost award for documentary photography. Other awards include the PDN 30, New and Emerging Photographers to Watch; POYi; NPPA Best of Photojournalism, International Photography Awards and American Photography.Selected exhibitions include group and solo shows at the Museum of the City of New York; Noordelicht Festival, Netherlands; Annenberg Space for Photography, LA and the Anastasia Photo Gallery, NYC.In 2022 she started writing the Substack newsletter In The Flash, an ongoing dialogue about the art and craft of creating and thinking about images. In her weekly posts, she discuses the creative process, focusing on the WHY of photography — intent, meaning, and inspiration. She shares her insights into the world of a professional photographer as well as all the things that make her tick and inspire her to create, from photography to art to music.Dina holds a bachelor in psychology from NYU and an MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts, NY. In episode 248, Dina discusses, among other things:Moving to the U.S. from Ukraine at 12 years oldThe immigrant dream of her parents for her to study medicineThe formative experience of earning her first $40 for shooting a portraitWhy she couldn't hold down a job in her early lifeComing out of wedding photography retirement to write a piece about itHow working on personal work was the key to getting good editorial clientsUntag This Photo and Bacherolette being the projects that got her attentionHow her background in psychology plays into the way she approaches shooting her projectsHer experience of being questioned in a classroom setting - why she does the newsletterHer post about why photographers should stop calling themselves artistsHer approach to Instagram and how she set out to build a huge audienceHow her Substack newsletter began with an invitation from MetaHer strategy around building community rather than earning incomeWhy working for exposure is photography's bigges Ponzi schemeThe importance of pursuing personal workHer projects Fashion Week and MeatpackingWebsite | Instagram“I'm an introvert with a social phobia. So I would never draw attention to myself. But with a camera I could actually go where I wanted to go and photograph and confront people, with a shield. And so I think I was using it more as my own self therapy, like I wanted to be in the middle of the party, and I wanted to be on this dancefloor with the young women, but I couldn't. And so with a camera I was there just photographing it.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Ian Howorth is a documentary photographer based in Brighton, UK. His work deals with themes of identity and culture. Through Setanta Books, Ian sold out his first book, Arcadia, in 2019 and published his second, A Country Kind of Silence, in 2023. Ian's work has been featured in publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, It's Nice That and Huck.In episode 248, Ian discusses, among other things:Striving to spend as much time as possible not compromisingThe benefits of having a full-time jobHis Instagram strategyHis previous life as a videographerAn early fascination for film stockInfluence of cinemaThe contrast between his trips to Peru and CubaHis first book ArcadiaHis origin story in which he lived in 9 homes across 3 countriesHis adventurous dad's influence on him (and his brothers)Having to adapt to a move from Peru to Miami at 12His relationship with England and the things he is drawn to photograph thereCombining documentary with fiction and not wanting to feel constrictedHis second book A A Country Kind of Silence Referenced:Zed NelsonPhil ToledanoRobbie LawrenceMax MiechoswskiStephen ShoreWilliam EgglestonJohn DivolaGregory CrewdsonSean TuckerWillam VerbeeckNational Film & Television SchoolParis TexasTania Franco KleinBill Callaghan Website | Instagram“Wim Wenders and Robby Müller [In Paris Texas] happened to hit on something that made sense artistically but also looks beautiful aesthetically, and that for me is the perfect marriage. Not everyone can achieve it, but that to me became very important. I wasn't doing that. I wasn't smart enough to do that. But at the same time I knew the power of colour - I knew what it did, I understood my emotional response to it. And that was enough for me to pursue it at the time, and I would figure it out later.” Perello Family's Go Fund Me pageBecome a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Ed Sykes is a photographer and visual artist based in London.Ed's practice focuses on landscape and changes to the environment as a result of natural processes and human activity. This approach is in conjunction with a re-working of photographic materials and a disruption of traditional photographic production. The processes and effects of climate change are often replicated during the image making process itself. The series 1000 Degrees used a blow torch to melt photographic negatives at a heat similar to the furnaces that propelled the Industrial Revolution. The work Hanging By A Thread pushed this same notion to the picture frames which were sourced secondhand and then the wooden surrounds were charred in a similar way to the subject matter of wildfires. Other approaches have involved sanding and abrasion echoing the effects of coastal erosion and also the use of soluble paper, the dissolution of an image in water, mimicking flood damage.Ed was the recipient of an Arts Council grant for the project Eco Matters and Sustainable Processes. This saw Ed travel along Britain's east coast and to some of Europe's fastest eroding coastlines, embedding a new creative approach to climate change, environment and the anthropocene. In 2021 he was nominated for Prix Pictet Award with1000 Degrees, a response to the historical, industrial exploitation of natural resources in UK. In episode 247, Ed discusses, among other things:Early days on The IndependentGoing to Somalia for ‘Operation Restore Hope' and being disillusioned by itMoving towards portraiture for magazines……and fashionHaving to take a day job and the feelings that brings upResetting, getting a 4x5 and doing it ‘without compromise'.Environmental themes and concernsDarkroom practiceHis Arts Council grant to pursue the project Eco Matters and Sustainable ProcessesUsing plant-based developer and Agfa Record Rapid paper for the project RockAccepting and embracing mistakes as part of the creative process Referenced:Brian HarrisKalpesh LathigraJames NachtwheyPaul LoweChris Steele PerkinsDelilah SykesRodrigo Arantia Website | Instagram “As a photographer, you want something that drives you on. You need to find something that is close to your heart. And if you have that, you're gonna go the distance. You're gonna persevere, you're gonna get up at four in the morning with the slim chance of getting one picture, because it's important to you.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Featuring:Richard KalvarNatalie KeyssarLorenzo CastoreEdward BurtynskyMitch EpsteinNicole TungLinda TroellerValerie BelinMichael AckermanJulia KochetovaChloé JaféDebi CornwallLouis QuailAbdul KircherDiana MatarKiana HayeriRobbie LawrenceAgnieszka SosnowskaPolly BradenStephan Vanfleteren Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Featuring:Bieke DepoorterJesse LenzLucas FogliaSergio PurtellRichard SharumMark McClennanAlex WebbRebecca-Norris WebbMichal IwanowskiDragana JurisicLisa BarlowToma GerzhaGregory HalpernMark SteinmetzMaxime Riché Website | Instagram Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Stephan Vanfleteren's career began as a staff photographer for the Belgian newspaper De Morgen. He continued to contribute to its weekend magazine as a freelancer until 2009.His radical black and white social documentary work covers the disappearing phenomena of everyday life in his homeland, Belgium. Over the years, Stephan has worked in conflict zones such as Kosovo, Rwanda and Afghanistan and he is a six time winner of the prestigious World Press Photo awards among a number of other international prizes.Stephan's intense portrait photography captures the essence of humanity in subjects ranging from the ordinary man to top politicians, sports idols and celebrities.He has exhibited in Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, London, Liverpool and Verona and his books include: Elvis & Presley (Kruse Verlag, 2001) a road trip across America dressed as Elvis Presley with photographer Robert Huber; Flandrien (Mertz, 2005) on the Flemish obsession with cycling; Belgicum (Lannoo 2007) an enigmatic portrayal of Belgium and Portret 1989-2009 (Lannoo 2009). His most recent books are Atelier published by Hannibal Books, an ode to the ability to observe, represent, elevate, and ultimately, connect, and Present, a journey through his oeuvre, with expansive personal reflections and stories from three decades of encounters and photography, from street photography in world cities like New York to the genocide of Rwanda, from storefront façades to the mystical landscapes of the Atlantic wall, from still lifes to intense portraits, and Charleroi – Il est clair que le gris est noir.In episode 244, Stephan discusses, among other things:MemoryPhotographing (older) menSkin… and lightCutting his teeth in the newspaper worldFlandrien bookRwandaBeing scared of successStill getting nervousAtlantic WallThe intensity of collaboration with a subjectBeing perceived as a ‘traitor' for shooting colourHis project with Robert Huber, Elvis and PresleyDead animalsPhotographing his dad post mortemMoving to digital from filmCharloi residency and his book Charleroi – Il est clair que le gris est noirReferenced:SebastiãoSalgadoJames NachtweyGilles PeressRobert Huber Website | Instagram“I was very scared of success. That was maybe my luck. Success was something I had difficulty dealing with. People are complimenting you on your work at the beginning and I'm just accepting that but it was difficult. And it helped me because I never arrived. I was on my way and the doubts were still there. If you think you know how to do it, it's time to leave. Sometimes if I think ‘ok, I can do that pretty well, Of course other people can do it better, but it's time to change, to have another approach…' So I had that in the early beginning, that feeling that I have to change. I love to begin something new.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Featuring:Javier Hirschfeld MorenoFrancesco ZizolaMelissa SchriekChilli PowerSelf Publishers UnitedBryan SchutmaatTiffany JonesAtong AtemWebsite | Instagram Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Polly Braden is a documentary photographer whose work features an ongoing conversation between the people she photographs and the environment in which they find themselves. Highlighting the small, often unconscious gestures of her subjects, Polly particularly enjoys long-term, in depth collaborations that in turn lends her photographs a unique, quiet intimacy. She works on long-term, self-initiated projects, as well as commissions for international publications.Polly has produced a large body of work that includes not only solo exhibitions and magazine features, but a number of books published by Dewi Lewis, including Holding The Baby (2022), Out of the Shadows: The Untold Story of People with Autism or Learning Disabilities (2018), and China Between (2010), and two published by Hoxton Mini Press: London's Square Mile: A Secret City (2019) and Adventures in the Lea Valley), (2016).Polly teaches regularly at The University of Westminster and London College of Communication (LCC), she is a winner of the Jerwood Photography Prize, The Guardian Young Photographer of the Year, 2002, and the Joanna Drew Bursary 2013. Polly is nominated by Hundred Heroines 2020 and she has exhibited at numerous venues internationally. Her most recent solo exhibition, of her project Leaving Ukraine, just ended at the Foundling Museum in London, where it was on show from March 15th to October 20th 2024. In episode 242, Polly discusses, among other things:Exhitibition at the Foundling Museum, Leaving Ukraine and how it came aboutSome of the people she focussed onHolding The Baby , her project on single parentsJena's storyWhy she has started working with film projectsHer introduction to photographyHer first trip to China: “an exercise in isolation”Her project on Chinese factories and their workersGreat Interactions book on people with learning disabilitiesHer current project she's working onSecuring funding, building partnerships and being an entrepreneurReferenced:Patrick SutherlandCheryl NewmanKatz PicturesBecky Sexton Website | Instagram “I'm not someone who wanted to just jump in, point a camera at someone and walk away. I think I've always been someone who wanted it to feel very collaborative. Whether you're on the street and you've made eye contact and you feel like someone's ok with it, at the very basic level, to now as I get older, when I'd be as interested in someone doing all the work and me just being a vehicle through which someone can tell their story.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Agnieszka Sosnowska was born in Warsaw, Poland and was raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and a MFA from Boston University. She is currently an elementary school teacher. She lives on farmin East Iceland. She is recognised for her self portraits that span 30 years. Currently she is working on series that embodies her life as an immigrant in Iceland. She uses the camera to take inspiration from a land that is otherworldly.“I grew up in Boston and traveled to Iceland 25 years ago on a whim”, says Agnieszka. “I fell in love and remained. With my Icelandic husband I chose to live in nature, not visit it. This decision has not been without tests. Together we have made a life that I feel we are only beginning. Everyday, I search for corners of quiet. When there, I stop and listen for a long time. These places exist around our farm, with friends, and the students I teach. These places are my everyday. They are my everything.”Agnieszka has been the recipient of a number of grants, including a Fulbright Scholars Fellowship to Poland and an American Scandinavian Fellowship to Iceland. She was awarded the Hjálmar R. Bárðarson Photography Grant by the National Museum of Iceland. Her series was awarded the Director's Choice by the Center awards in 2017 and she has been in the Top 50 of Critical Mass on three occasions. Her work has been exhibited in the National Museum of Iceland and the Reykjavik Museum of Photography. She is represented exclusively by Vision Neil Folberg Gallery in Jerusalem.Earlier this year, Agnieszka released her debut photobook, För, published by Trespasser Books and already sold out.Her collaboration with Icelandic poet Ingunn Snædal, entitled RASK, is currently being exhibited at the Reykjavik Museum of Photography until Decembet 2024.In episode 241, Agnieszka discusses, among other things:Early years travelling to Communist PolandWanting to assimilate into the USA as an immigrantEarly education in photography at Mass. ArtHer early interest in self-portraitureNot having a plan… but being a hard workerThe trip to Iceland that changed her life……and her decision to move thereA description of where she livesThe hardest thing to adapt to being the WintersThe first things she started to photograph thereSelf-portaiture and the suckiness of documenting ageingThe freedom of realising that you don't have to work on distinct ‘projects'‘Myth of a Woman' - her attempt at exploring the experience of womanhoodCollaborating with her students on portrait sessionsThe last picture in the bookHer collaboration with Icelandic poet Ingunn Snædal, RASK, currently an exhibition at the Reykjavik Museum of PhotographyReferenced:Cindy ShermanMargaret JohnsonLaura McPheeIngunn SnædalBarbara BosworthWebsite | Instagram“I wanted to grow. I just didn't know how. And I think the only way you grow is not by thinking about it but by doing it and making the mistakes. And I made a lot of mistakes. And thank God I did because in doing the mistakes I started to get more to having the self-portraits be more real. And that's really hard to do. Especially I think as me having done it for so long, and also getting older in front of a camera, as a woman, it's hard.” VOTE HERE FOR ALETHEIA CASEY TO HAVE A SOLO SHOW AT PARIS PHOTO!!Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Robbie Lawrence is a London based Scottish photographer and director represented by Webber Represents. Robbie is acutely attentive to the way images tell a story. Working with a painterly softness and sensitivity to his subjects, he deals in detail and nuance. From portraiture, travel and documentary to editorial work, he places the human experience front and centre to create thoughtful, abstract images, with an emphasis on narrative.Recent books include Blackwater River and A Voice Above The Linn published by Stanley/Barker. Stills gallery in Edinburgh hosted the first UK institutional solo exhibition by Robbie in 2022, bringing together a snapshot of life post-Brexit across Scotland's cities, rural locations and coastal towns.Robbie's new book, Long Walk Home, was just released (September 2024) by Stanley/Barker.Clients Include: UN, Apple, Nike, Hermes, Gucci, The New Yorker, Du Monde, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, I-D and many others. In episode 240, Robbie discusses, among other things:His recent assignment at The OlympicsHis internship in Paris and his time in New YorkHis relationship to painting and writingBuilding a career to encompass commercial and personal workHow working commercially can be a ‘relief'.His ‘macrojournalistic approach'His first book project, Blackwater RiverHis second book, A Voice Above The LinnCollaboration with poet John BurnsideHis new book about the Highland Games, Long Walk Home.Why he threw away three years worth of work and began againWorking digitally with ‘manual' lensesThe difference between myth and historyA reading from John Burnside's essay in the bookReferenced:The Tokyo Olympiad, Kon IchikawaThe French, William KleinJohn BurnsideRenton's rant on why it's ‘shite being Scottish' from the movie Trainspotting Website | Instagram“I like the variety […] I like being on set. You become more like a director. As a photographer you're almost the emotional heartbeat of a set. It's interesting because at school and university I really found exams hellish from an expectation point of view. Like, I would put myself under a lot of pressure. And I would describe some of those more pressurised commercial jobs almost like a school exam where you expected to produce something of quality under a very tight time constraint. As a physical experience it can feel similar, and I suppose maybe it's just experience that I can now recall moments where I've overcome those kind of stresses. So I like the shift.” VOTE HERE FOR ALETHEIA CASEY TO HAVE A SOLO SHOW AT PARIS PHOTO!!Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Visual storyteller Kiana Hayeri grew up in Tehran and moved to Toronto while she was still a teenager. Faced with the challenges of adapting to a new environment, she took up photography as a way of bridging the gap in language and culture. In 2014, a short month before NATO forces pulled out, Kiana moved to Kabul and stayed on for 8 years. Her work often explores complex topics such as migration, adolescence, identity and sexuality in conflict-ridden societies.In 2014, Kiana was named as one of the emerging photographers by PDN 30 Under 30. In 2016, she was selected as the recipient of Chris Hondros Award as an emerging photographer. In 2017, she received a grant from European Journalism Center to do a series of reporting on gender equality out of Afghanistan and received Stern Grant in 2018 to continue her work on the state of mental health among afghan women. In 2020, Kiana received Tim Hetherington Visionary award for her proposed project to reveal the dangers of dilettante “hit & run” journalism. Later that year, she was named as the 6th recipient of the James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting. In 2021, Kiana received the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal for her photographic series Where Prison is Kind of a Freedom, documenting the lives of Afghan women in Herat Prison. In 2022, Kiana was part of The New York Times reporting team that won The Hal Boyle Award for The Collapse of Afghanistan and was shortlisted under International Reporting for the Pulitzer Prize. In the same year, she was also named as the winner of Leica Oskar Barnack Award for her portfolio, Promises Written On the Ice, Left In the Sun, an intimate look into the lives of Afghan from all walks of life.Kiana, along with her colloaborator, the researcher Mélissa Cornet, is recipient of the 2024 Carmignac Photojournalism Award for the reportage No Woman's Land, an investigation into the plight of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban and the work will be showcased in a double exhibition this Autumn - from October 25th to November 18th - at the Réfectoire des Cordeliers in Paris as part of the Photo Saint Germain festival.Kiana is a Senior TED fellow, a National Geographic Explorer grantee and a regular contributor to The New York Times and National Geographic. She is currently based in Sarajevo, telling stories from Afghanistan, The Balkans and beyond. In episode 239, Kiana discusses, among other things:Her story for the NYT about FGM in GambiaGender apartheidHer take on winning awards as a photojournalistHaving to Google what the Robert Cap Gold Medal was - having won itHer book When Cages FlyMoving to Canada from Iran as a teenagerHow photography helped her bridge the ‘culture and language gap'.Being at a ‘gifted' schoolHer first trip to AfghanistanComparisons with Iran in terms of relative ‘liberalism'.Her first commission from National GeographicHer story on women in Herat prisonThe moment Afghanistan fell to the Taliban and her guilt over leaving friends behindGender apartheid in Afghanistan specificallyThe dangers of ‘dilettante hit and run journalism' Referenced: Eddie Adams workshopsDominic NahrKitra CahanaEd OuGuy MartinStephen MayesMélissa CornetSarah Leen Website | Instagram “I tell people having a camera is like living a thousand different lives, but you have that camera as an excuse to immerse yourself into something, live it for a while and then walk away when you're ready.” VOTE HERE FOR ALETHEIA CASEY TO HAVE A SOLO SHOW AT PARIS PHOTO!!Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Using photography, testimony and archive, Diana Matar's in-depth bodies of work investigate themes of history, memory and state sponsored violence. Grounded in heavy research and often spending years on a project, Diana attempts to capture the invisible traces of human history and produces installations and books that query what role aesthetics might playin the depiction of power. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Diana has received the Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award for Fine Art; the International Fund for Documentary Photography; a Ford Foundation Grant for artists making work on history and memory; and twice been awarded an Arts Council of England Individual Artist Grant. Her work is held in public and private collections and has been exhibited in numerous institutions including Tate Modern, London; The National Museum of Singapore; Museum Folkswang, Essen, Germany; The Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; and Musee de la Photographie a Charleroi. Her monograph Evidencewas published in 2014 by Schilt Publishing Amsterdam to critical acclaim and chosen by New York Times Photography critic Teju Cole as one of two best photography books of the year. In 2019 Matar was appointed Distinguished Artist at Barnard College Columbia University, New York. In April 2024 Diana's most recent book, My America, was published by GOST Books.  In episode 238, Diana discusses, among other things:Early experiences in Panama and Latin America.How an errand to buy a lightbulb changed everything.A brush with Manuel Noriega.How she met her Libyan husband, the writer Hisham Matar.Why she found doing her M.A. ‘really, really challenging'.Her first book project, Evidence.The inclusion of her own writing in the book.Her latest book, My America.Some of the key factors around the issue of police shootings.The complexities of the subject.How she has “intermalised a European sense of America.”Why she shot the project on her iPhone and the rules she imposed on herself.Whether photographs can ‘bear the burden of history.'What she is currently working on.Her reaction to the bonus questions. Website | Instagram“I think I internalised a European sense of America in several different ways. When I was out on the road a lot of things seemed exotic to me, things that I'd grown up with and were just part of being: the long distances; these buildings that just pop up in the middle of nowhere; the emptiness; the scale… the kind of watching of movies of what is the American west. The internalisation I think has something to do with scale. I live in London - the small streets, you're around people all the time, and then being in this openness, which i miss and i love, but I did find it unnerving and it effected how I made the work actually.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

Abdulhamid Kircher is an artist from Queens, New York. He was born in 1996 in Berlin to German and Turkish parents, and immigrated with his mother to the United States at the age of eight. His work is a living archive of place and people, as it is also a dedication to the language of photography, the mechanics and aesthetic possibilities of the form. Through his devotion to classical forms of image making and the radical experimentation required for each of his subjects, his process bridges the idea between document and narrative. He received his BA in Culture and Media from The New School in 2018 and his MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California San Diego in 2022. Abdul currently lives and works between Berlin and Los Angeles.Abdul's debut photobook, Rotting From Within, was recently published by Loose Joints in June this year (2024). In it Abdul explores identity, patriarchy, generational trauma and the possibility of reconciliation in a diaristic project between Berlin and Turkey. A solo exhibition of the work is currently on show at the Carlier Gebauer gallery in Berlin until the 31st August. The 53 minute documentary film, Noch ein Kind (Still a Kid), 2024, by Abdul's childhood friend Maxi Hachem, a Lebanese-German filmmaker based in Berlin, is also being screened as part of the exhibition. His documentary investigates the complex relationships and wounded history of Rotting from Within spanning the past three years between Berlin and Turkey. In episode 237, Abdul discusses, among other things:His early life “dragging bags of weed around the house”The history of paternal abuse in his familyHow he ended up moving from Berlin to New YorkHow he got into photography through TumblrHow his interest in photography drove the reconnection with his fatherWhere the books title stems fromParallels between his mum and grandmotherKeeping a diary since highschoolHis obsessive nature and tendency for self-flagellationHis partner, Zoe, who contributed text to the bookHow the documentary his friend Maxi Hachem shot, Noch Ein Kind (Still A Kid)How the work has been received as an exhibitionHow the process of making the work may or may not have helped himWebsite | Instagram “I love it, but it's beyond love because it feels like something that I just need to do. That's why I was talking about photography being such an intuitive thing in my head, it's because I don't really have an option. I need to take these photographs, I need to make these photographs, and it's not really something I have power over. And I think that's the scary bit, it's that yes I love it for what it's allowed me to explore and allowed me to sort of open up to the world, but in that way it's also become a burden.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Louis Quail is a documentary photographer who increasingly devotes his time to personal, long-term projects. His most recent work ‘Big Brother' (published with Dewi Lewis, 2018), has received significant critical acclaim. The book and the work in it has been shortlisted for the Arles Book and Text award 2018, Wellcome Trust photography prize 2019 and is winner of the Renaissance Series Prize 2017. His Arts Council funded, Solo show, ‘Before They Were Fallen' also received significant exposure. It toured the UK and reflects an interest in aftermath that has taken him, previously to Libya, Afghanistan, Haiti and Kosovo. He has worked extensively for some of the UK's best known magazines and has been published internationally over a period of many years. He has twice been a finalist at the National Portrait Gallery portraiture award and is held in their permanent collection. He lectures, exhibits internationally and makes short films. In episode 236, Louis discusses, among other things:How the subject of his book, his big brother Justin, is doingChildhood with his schizophrenic mumWhy he believes firmly in the importance of toleranceThe way that he approached telling his brother's storySome of the structural and political issues that impact people with mental health issuesThe importance of not over-focussing on some of the un-pc language that some of us use in daily life (including me, in this example)How he found his way into photographyHis portrait series ‘Aftermath' which began in KosovoHis career as a jobbing editorial photographerHIs latest project about air pollution Website | Instagram “I'm not judgemental, I'm quite tolerant, and I do think that's an important quaility that's very much overlooked, especially these days on Twitter when everyone's reacting to stuff all the time. I don't like that. I'm really just into giving people a bit of space an allowing people to make some mistakes.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Debi Cornwall is a multimedia documentary artist who returned to visual expression after a 12-year career as a civil-rights lawyer. Her work explores the performance of power, citizenship and identity through still and moving images, sound, testimony, and archival material.While completing a degree in Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, Debi studied photography at RISD. After working for photographers Mary Ellen Mark and Sylvia Plachy, as an AP stringer, and as an investigator for the federal public defender's office, she attended Harvard Law School and practiced as a wrongful conviction attorney for more than a decade, also training as a mediator. Exhaustive research and negotiation were critical to her advocacy and remain integral to her visual practice.Debi was awarded the 2023 Prix Elysée, a biennial juried contemporary photography prize created by the Photo Elysée Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland with the support of Parmigiani Fleurier. The award enabled her to complete Model Citizens, now a book in English and French editions (Radius/Textuel) and an exhibition at the 2024 Rencontres d'Arles festival. She is also a 2024 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Individual Artist Grantee in film, a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in photography, and inaugural Leica Women Foto Project Award winner. Debi's work has been profiled in publications including Art in America, European Photography Magazine, British Journal of Photography, the New York Times Magazine, and Hyperallergic, and is held in public and private collections around the world.Debi has published two previous books, Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay and Necessary Fictions. She is also an ICP faculty member, teaching students how to plumb deeper layers in their work, and consults independently with artists developing long-term projects. In episode 235, Debi discusses, among other things:Winning the Prix ElyséeHer path into a legal career in civil rightsThe ightbulb moment that took her to Guantanamo BayWorking around restrictions imposed“The performance of American power”Her secoond book Necessary FictionsHer films Pineland/Hollywood and Jade HelmHer latest book Model Citizens Website | Instagram“I don't think it's a thread in the work so much as something that I'm really sitting with personally and creatively, but I have this advocate self who is outraged and frustrated at what is happening in our societies. And I have a trained mediator in me, which is more consistent with my creative approach, who thinks none of this changes unless we can really talk to each other across these divides; unless we can accept each other's humanity and hear each other. Because that isn't happening.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Featuring:Mimi Mollica website/InstagramKeerthana Kunnath website/InstagramMikael Buck website/InstagramChris Dorley Brown website/InstagramShaw & Shaw website/InstagramMal Woolford website/InstagramImogen Forte website/InstagramQuetzal Maucci website/InstagramRichard Eyers website/InstagramWebsite | Instagram Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Born in Lyon in 1984 represented by Akio Nagasawa gallery, Chloé Jafé is an artist and a photographer trained at the École de Condé in Lyon and at the UAL Central Saint Martins School in London.She has been able to create a unique personal voice in the world of documentary photography. Those close to her say bluntly that she photographs with her gut, using the camera as a key to understanding the strange and the foreign. Her obsession and intuition has enabled her to access secret worlds. Her ability to connect to her subjects has meant her work really is exceptionally personal – the world through Chloe Jafes eyes.She worked and immersed herself in Japan and Japanese culture from 2013-2019 creating a trilogy of work. The images are raw, black and white, tender and ferocious. She reveals an unprecedented vision of hidden parts of Japanese society. Her trilogy, composed of the chapters “I give you my life", "Okinawa mon amour" and "How I met Jiro", highlights the little-known and subversive sides of a place where modesty is paramount.Critically acclaimed, her work on the women of the Yakuza was rewarded by the Bourse du Talent in 2017 and exhibited at the Bibliotèque nationale de France.Attracted by sensitive and difficult subjects, often marginal, Chloé Jafé does not hesitate in her practice to push the limits of the photographic medium by working directly on prints, in acrylic and brush. Each of her series has resulted in a limited edition book, bound and handcrafted by the artist. In episode 233, Chloé discusses, among other things:Photography as ‘a tool'Her first trip to JapanMoving thereHostess jobMeeting ‘the boss'The women of The YakuzaThe significance of tattoosPainting onto her printsHer trilogy of books: I Give You My Life, Okinawa Mon Amour and How I Met JiroFinding abandoned negativesAdventures in publishingReferenced:Paolo RoversiSarah MoonYakuza MoonJake AdelsteinReminders ProjectTeun van der Heijden Website | Instagram“I was sure this project was mine. I had to do this. You know, I think I was frustrated that I was the right person to do this, and it was my mission. I was sure about that.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Featuring:Lydia Goldblatt Website | InstagramKamiar Maleki Website | InstagramMichelle Sank Website | InstagramGered Mankowitz Website | InstagramAlys Tomlinson Website | Instagram | Mother Vera filmFariba Farshad Website | InstagramCharlotte Jansen Website | InstagramAndi Gáldi Vinkó Website | InstagramAnne-Marie Beckmann WebsiteRenée Mussai InstagramValérie Belin Website | InstagramMatt Stuart Website | InstagramChloé Jafé Website | Instagram Photo London: Website | Instagram Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Featuring:Silvia Rosi Website | InstagramArko Datto Website | InstagramYvonne Venegas Website | InstagramTim ClarkMarta Bogdanska Website | InstagramMichele Sibiloni Website | Instagram Referenced:Walter GuadagniniLuce LebartBruno LatourTimothy MortonDaisy Hildyard Festival: Website | Instagram / Collezione Maramotti: Website | Instagram Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Julia Kochetova (b. 1993) is a Ukrainian photojournalist and documentary filmmaker based in Kyiv. Her work focuses on firsthand storytelling as a method, researching topics of the war generation, post-traumatic stress disorder, and feminism. Julia studied journalism at Taras Shevchenko National University (UA) and Mohyla School of Journalism (UA), alongside participating in IDFAcademy (NL). As a freelancer, Julia has covered the Maidan revolution (2013-2014), the annexation of Crimea (2014), and the Russia-Ukraine war (2014-now). She is a regular contributor to Der Spiegel, Vice News, Zeit, Bloomberg, The Guardian, amongst others.In 2023, Julia won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Continuing News Coverage: Long Form with VICE News Tonight and in 2024, just a few weeks ago, was the global winner of the Open Format category in the World Press Photo awards for her multi-media project War Is Personal.In episode 230, Julia discusses, among other things:Viewing the war as a long-term project.Not choosing to be a war photoghrapher.Still photographs no longer ‘working' - importance of text.How her WPP winning project was done ‘last minute'.Her love/hate relationship with Instagram.How all her plans changed in 2014 with the Maidan Revolution.Her documentary film project See You Later.What she means by ‘it's about the photographs I haven't taken'.A valuable lesson learned about behaving ethically.How war has deprived her of the capacity for joy.Referenced:Oleksandr KomiakhovDaria Kolomiec Website | Instagram “I'm really grateful that our story is being told by Ukrainian photographers, but it never was about career ambition. We Ukrainian storytellers were never in the position that we chose to become war photographers. I keep saying I'm not a war photographer. I'm photographing war because this is what's happening in my country. I have zero wish to photograph any other wars. I'm doing this because this is my war. That's the only accurate skill I have.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Michael Ackerman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1967. When he was seven years old his family emigrated to New York City, where he grew up and began photographing at the age of eighteen. Michael has exhibited internationally and published five books, including End Time City, by Robert Delpire, which won the Prix Nadar in 1999. His other books are Epilogue (Void, 2019) Half Life (Delpire, 2010) Fiction (Delpire, 2001) and Smoke (l'axolotl, 2023). His work is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Brooklyn Museum, and The Biliothèque National, France among others, as well as in many private collections.“In Michael Ackerman's work, documentary and autobiography conspire with fiction, and all of the above dissolve into hallucination. His photography explores time and timelessness, personal history and the history of places, immediate family and love, with all it's complexities and contradictions. “ Jem Cohen. Michael currently lives in Berlin and is represented by Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, Spot Home Gallery, Naples and MC2 Gallery, Milan. In episode 229, Michael discusses, among other things:A little family historyWhy he put that info on his websiteCollating family photos on becoming a fatherWhy he loves New YorkHow he started photography thereBeing ‘very, very slow'Why he uses cheap plastic camerasWhat he likes about photographing animalsMoodAnders PetersenLonging being the human conditionPhotographing ‘life'Text and contextTranscending the facts while keeping a strong hold on a deeper truthHis life in Berlin with an impossible ‘to do' list Referenced:Teru KuwayamaSylvia PlachyLorenzo CastoreAnders PetersenRobert FrankMasao YamamotoBoris MikhailovJem Cohen Website | Instagram“For me photography is always a negotiation between confrontation and avoidance. And I think my pictures show that. I think my pictures are very intimate and they do get close to something and they are an attempt at getting close, but there's also a lot of fear in them I see, because I know it in myself, and a lot of solitude.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

A student at the École Beaux-arts de Versailles (1983–1985), and then at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Art de Bourges (1985-1988), French artist Valerie Belin obtained the French higher national diploma in visual expression in 1988 and also holds a diploma in advanced studies (DEA) in the philosophy of art from the Université de Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne (1989). Initially influenced by various minimalist and conceptual tendencies, Valérie became interested in the photographic medium in its own right; this is at once the subject of her work and her way of reflecting and creating. Light, matter and the “body” of things and beings in general, as well as their transformations and representations, constitute the terrain of her experiments and the world of her artistic ideas. Her work is articulated in photographic series, each one produced within the framework of a specific project. Valérie's work has been exhibited around the world and is held in numerous public and private collections. Winner of the Prix Pictet in 2015 (Disorder), she was made an officer of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2017. This same year, a touring exhibition was co-produced by the Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing, the SCôP in Shanghai and the Chengdu Museum. In 2019, Valérie unveiled a major new series at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and this year, 2024, she has been named as Master of Photography at Photo London where she will have a major career retrospective.Valerie lives and works in Paris. In episode 228, Valerie discusses, among other things:Her father being an artist at heartThe influence of a particular teacherThe dual influence of American minimal art and Italian baroque artHow she discovered photography and was inspired by a misogynistic teacherNot photographing people initiallyPresence and absenceWhy she chose bodybuilders as her first foray into shooting peopleThe theme of beautyHow women are ‘attacked' by stereotypesAI being paradoxical to what she wants to showThe importance of Photoshop to her practiceWhere the ideas come fromUse of comic booksMaking a livingRecent series' ‘Heroes' and ‘Lady Stardust'. Referenced:Carl AndreRobert MorrisTony Smith (sculptor)Richard Serra Website | Instagram“I think it's still true to say I'm very close to my medium and to the hybridation, because if you think of it what is photography today when with the same camera you can make videos, you can make whatever you want? I think we are in a time when you always have a kind of superimposition in your mind, you have several channels on all the time in your mind and maybe my pictures are showing that way of thinking or way of living.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Linda Troeller's art projects focus on self-portraits, women's and social issues. For 20 year she lived in the legendary Chelsea Hotel in New York City, curating an exhibition for the 125th Anniversary, “Chelsea Hotel Through the Eyes of Photographers”, and publishing a monograph of her own entitled Living in the Chelsea Hotel.Other publications include Healing Waters, The Erotic Lives of Women and her newest book of self-portraits taken over almost fifty years, Sex, Death, Transcendence, published earlier this year (2024) by TBW books. Linda was also the subject of a 2023 feature-length documentary film, also entitled Healing Waters, directed by Derek Johnson and Ali Scattergood.She has lectured at the School of Visual Arts, NYU, Parsons, Yale, Salzburg Summer Art Academy, New Orleans Photo Alliance, and Ryerson University, Toronto and was a professor of photography at Stockton College of New Jersey, Indiana University, and Bournemouth College, England. She has a MFA, School of Art, and MS, Newhouse School, Syracuse University and BS from Reed School of Journalism, West Virginia University.Linda lives in New York City and New Jersey.     In episode 227, Linda discusses, among other things:Modelling on an Ansel Adams book making workshopThe experience of being nude in front of strangersThe spirit of the 60s in the 70s + women's libHealing watersSocieties expectations of women and ageingHer book, The Erotic Lives of WomenLiving in the Chelsea Hotel for 20 yearsHow Alexander MacQueen influenced her visual paletteHow she has earned a living over the yearsHer TB/Aids project Referenced:Lucien ClergueEikoh HosoeGeorge TiceJudy DaterImogen CunninghamJack WelpottRobert HeineckenLee FriedlanderMelissa Shook Website | Instagram“You have to do some work to build up your self confidence, to be your most youness. ‘You'. Youness, herness, hisness, theirness, whatever it is that you wanna to be your most of you can make some strides by looking at yourself and understanding yourself. And if you want to do some more in your presentation you can. And you should.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Nicole Tung is a freelance photojournalist. She graduated from New York University, double majoring in history and journalism, and freelances for international publications and NGOs, working primarily in the Middle East and Asia. After covering the conflicts in Libya and Syria extensively from 2011, focusing on the plight of civilians, she spent 2014 documenting the lives of Native American war veterans in the US, as well as former child soldiers in the DR Congo, the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and the refugee crisis in Europe. She is also a grantee of the IWMF Grant for Women's Stories, and a fellow of the IWMF Great Lakes Reporting Initiative (D.R. Congo, Central African Republic). She has received multiple awards for her work from the International Photo Awards, Society of Professional Journalists, PX3, and was named PDN's 30 Under 30 Emerging Photographers (2013), among others. Nicole was given the honorable mention for the IWMF 2017 Anja Niedringhaus Awards, and awarded the 2018 James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting from the Online News Association. Her work has been exhibited + screened at the Annenberg Space for Photography, Tropenmuseum Amsterdam, Visa Pour l'Image, and most recently at the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy award for war correspondents in France (2019), with Save the Children in Hong Kong (2019), and at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong (2020). Nicole has also given keynote speeches and contributed to panels on photojournalism and journalist safety, at events including the International Journalism Festival (Perugia, 2019), TEDx in Sweden, the Adobe Make It Conference in Sydney, and Creative Mornings at the National Geographic Auditorium in Washington D.C., among others. She served on the board of the Frontline Freelance Register (2015) and is has undergone HEFAT training with Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC) and Global Journalist Security. She is based in Istanbul, Turkey. In episode 226, Nicole discusses, among other things:Notable differences between the war in Ukraine and previous conflicts she has coveredThe modern use of drones in warfareStories she has covered in UkraineThe way she works with publicationsManaging and thinking about riskThe question of whether journalists in conflict zones are more likely to be targeted now than in the pastReactions to her from ordinary people in conflictsThe question of whether photojournalism is an ‘important' jobThe impacts of social media both negative and positiveApproaching photojournalistic stories in a different wayPotential ways to earn a living other than from commissions Referenced:Chris HondrosTim HetheringtonMarie ColvinRemi OchlickJames Foley Website | Instagram“If you don't become trapped in this idea that what you do is so precious and be real about the impact and the degree to which images and photojournalism can go, especially if your intentions are good, you're based in reality at least. Your grounded in a certain reality where you go “I know my images aren't going to stop a war tomorrow but at least I can be a part of that documentation process.” And to me that is important. Why shouldn't we be showing a reflection of our collective humanity that is both ugly and beautiful at the same time? There are so many grey areas. The world is not black and white.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Mitch Epstein helped pioneer fine-art color photography in the 1970s. His photographs are in numerous major museum collections, including New York's Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art; The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Tate Modern in London.In October 2024, Gallerie d'Italia in Turin, Italy will present a major multi-media exhibition of Mitch's project, Old Growth; and in September 2024, Old Growth will be shown in NYC at Yancey Richardson Gallery. Mitch's Indian photographs and films (Salaam Bombay! and India Cabaret) were exhibited in 2022 at Les Rencontres d'Arles festival in France. Mitch has had numerous other major solo exhibitions in the USA and worldwide.Mitch's seventeen books, all published by Steidl Verlag, include Recreation (2022); Property Rights (2021); In India (2021); Rocks and Clouds (2017); New York Arbor (2013); Berlin (Steidl/The American Academy in Berlin 2011); American Power (2009); and Family Business (2003), which was winner of the 2004 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award.In 2020, Mitch was inducted into the National Academy of Design. In 2011, he won the Prix Pictet for American Power. Among his other awards are the Berlin Prize in Arts and Letters from the American Academy in Berlin (2008), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2003).Mitch has worked as a director, cinematographer, and production designer on several films, including Dad, Mississippi Masala, and Salaam Bombay!. He lives with his family in New York City. In episode 225, Mitch discusses, among other things:New YorkJohn Szarkowski at MOMAEditingIndiaGarry Winogrand and his influenceGoing to LA in ‘74Working on the films of his then wife Mira NairTrial and errorFamily BusinessAmerican PowerOld Growth Referenced:John SzarkowskiEugene AtgetDiane ArbusWilliam EgglestonTodd PapageorgeRaghubir SinghJonas MekasHollis FramptonWebsite | Instagram“Through disorientation, through not knowing, through being uncomfortable, things happen. And I think some of the most important periods for me in my life as an artist have been those periods where I have ultimately not known what I was doing or where I was going next. Now I'm a little bit better at just listening to the signals that come along, even though they may not give me the full-fledged answer they'll just point in a direction. And I'm a little bit more patient with the process.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Edward Burtynsky is regarded as one of the world's most accomplished contemporary photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes represent over 40 years of his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of human industry on the planet. Edward's photographs are included in the collections of over 80 major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa; the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid; the Tate Modern in London, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California.Edward was born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage in St. Catharines, Ontario. He received his BAA in Photography/Media Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in 1982, and has since received both an Alumni Achievement Award (2004) and an Honorary Doctorate (2007) from his alma mater. He is still actively involved in the university community, and sits on the board of directors for The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre).In 1985, Edward founded Toronto Image Works, a darkroom rental facility, custom photo laboratory, digital imaging, and new media computer-training centre catering to all levels of Toronto's art community.Early exposure to the General Motors plant and watching ships go by in the Welland Canal in Edward's hometown helped capture his imagination for the scale of human creation, and to formulate the development of his photographic work. His imagery explores the collective impact we as a species are having on the surface of the planet — an inspection of the human systems we've imposed onto natural landscapes.Exhibitions include: Anthropocene (2018) at the Art Gallery of Ontario and National Gallery of Canada (international touring exhibition); Water (2013) at the New Orleans Museum of Art and Contemporary Art Center in Louisiana (international touring exhibition); Oil (2009) at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (five-year international touring show), China (toured internationally from 2005 - 2008); Manufactured Landscapes at the National Gallery of Canada (toured from 2003 - 2005); and Breaking Ground produced by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (toured from 1988 - 1992). Edward's visually compelling works are currently being exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the globe, including at London's Saatchi Gallery where his largest solo exhibition to-date, entitled Extraction/Abstraction, is currently on show until 6th May 2024.Edward's distinctions include the inaugural TED Prize (which he shared with Bono and Robert Fischell), the title of Officer of the Order of Canada, and the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award for Art. In 2018 Edward was named Photo London's Master of Photography and the Mosaic Institute's Peace Patron. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Arts & Letters Award at the Canadian Association of New York's annual Maple Leaf Ball and the 2019 Lucie Award for Achievement in Documentary Photography. In 2020 he was awarded a Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship and in 2022 was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award by the World Photography Organization. Most recently he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and was named the 2022 recipient for the annual Pollution Probe Award. Edward currently holds eight honorary doctorate degrees and is represented by numerous international galleries all over the world. In episode 224, Edward discusses, among other things:His transition from film to digitalStaying positive by ‘moving through grief to land on meaning'Making compelling images and how scale creates ambiguityDefining the over-riding theme of his work early onThe environmental impact of farmingWhether he planned his careerWhy he started a lab to finance his photographyAnd how being an entrepreneur feeds into his work as an artistVertical IntegrationExamples of challenging situations he has facedThe necessity for his work to be commoditisedHis relative hope and optimism for the future through positive technologyThe importance of having a hopeful component to the workHow he offsets his own carbon footprint Referenced:Joel SternfeldEliiot PorterStephen ShoreJennifer BaichwalNicholas de Pencier Website | Instagram“The evocation of the sense of wonder and the sense of the surreal, or the improbable, or ‘what am I looking at?', to me is interesting in a time where images are so consumed; that these are not for quick consumption they're for… slow. And I think that when things reveal themselves slowly and in a more challenging way, they become more interesting as objects to leave in the world. That they don't just reveal themselves immediately, you can't just get it in one quick glance and you're done, no, these things ask you to look at them and spend time with them. And I discover things in them sometimes that I never saw before. They're loaded with information.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Italian photographer Lorenzo Castore's work is characterised by long term projects focusing on his personal experience, memory and the relationship between individual stories, history and the present time.In 1992 at the age of 19 Lorenzo moved from Rome to New York where he began to photograph in the streets. After a formative trip to India in 1997, he had a brief foray into photojournalism, covering the conflicts in Albania and Kosovo in 1999, afte which he decided to quit photojournalism and deepen his personal research.Since then has worked extensively in Poland, Cuba and Sardinia among other places and has produced several photobooks and a short film entitled No Peace Without War.In 2019 his lifelong work Time Maze began to be published by L'artiere in progressive chronological volumes. The first entitled A Beginning, 1994-2001 and the second Lack and Locking, 2001-2007. The next two volumes are already in the works or planned.Lorenzo's is represented by Galerie S. in Paris, Galerie Anne Clergue in Arles, Alessia Paladini Gallery in Milan, Spot Home Gallery in Naples and Guido Costa Projects in Turin.In episode 223, Lorenzo discusses, among other things:His formative yearsHis journey into photographyHis time in New York……and the photograph that changed everythingThe importance of finding stories and making life an adventureHis project Time Maze - first book A BeginningHis brief foray into photojournalism in KosovoWhy he went to shoot in PolandHIs interest in minersThe forthcoming sequels to A BeginningReferenced:Michael AckermanAnders PetersenRamon PezJosef KoudelkaSaverio CostanzoHenri Cartier BressonGeorgio MortariEloi GimenoChristain CajouleWebsite | Instagram“I was postponing because of this embarrassment that I have when we say you talk about your personal life. It's a really strange feeling, I really want to do it and at the same time I feel I have to do it very carefully.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Brian Griffin was born in Birmingham in 1948 and grew up in the neighbouring Black Country, in the English midlands. He started his working life at 16 working in a factory, where he remained for 5 years, before finally making his escape to Manchester Polytechnic where he took a degree in photography, shortly after which he left for London in pursuit of a photographic career as a fashion photographer. It was there that he met and was mentored by Roland Schenk, the charismatic art director on Management Today magazine, who offered him a job as a corporate photographer. The rest, as they say, is history. Brian was later considered 'the photographer of the decade' by the Guardian Newspaper in 1989; 'the most unpredictable and influential British portrait photographer of the last decades' by the British Journal of Photography in 2005 and 'one of Britain's most influential photographers' by the World Photography Organisation in 2015. In 1991, his book Work was awarded the ‘Best Photography Book in the World' prize at Barcelona Primavera Fotografica. Brian is patron of the Format Photography Festival in Derby; in September 2013, he received the ‘Centenary Medal' from the Royal Photographic Society in recognition of a lifetime achievement in photography; and in 2014 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University. Brian Griffin's photographs are held in the permanent collections of many major art institutions and he has published twenty or so books, including his latest, Pop which features some of the highlights of his album artwork and band photography from decades working in the music industry with such artists as Iggy Pop, Elvis Costello, Depeche Mode and Kate Bush. In other words, he's a bit of a legend. Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.

Natalie Keyssar is a documentary photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work focuses on the personal effects of political turmoil and conflict, youth culture, and migration.  She has a BFA in Painting and Illustration from The Pratt Institute. Natalie has contributed to publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Time, Bloomberg Business Week, National Geographic and The New Yorker, and been awarded by organizations including the Philip Jones Griffith Award, the Aaron Siskind Foundation, PDN 30, Magenta Flash Forward, and American Photography. She has taught New Media at the International Center of Photography in New York, and  has instructed at various workshops across the US and Latin America with organizations such as Foundry, Women Photograph, The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and the IWMF. Her work has been supported by The Pulitzer Center, The Magnum Foundation, The National Geographic Society, and the IWMF among many others, and she is the winner of the 2018 ICP Infinity Emerging Photographer Award, the 2019 PH Museum Women Photographer's Grant, and is a winner of the 2023 Aperture Creator Labs Photo Fund. She is a Canon Explorer of Light and Co-Founder of the NDA Workshops series with Daniella Zalcman. She speaks fluent Spanish and is available for assignments internationally, as well as teaching and speaking engagements.  In episode 222, Natalie discusses, among other things:The conflict in GazaHow the internet and social media is clumsily creating a hive mindHer Jewish identity and how it shapes her perspectiveHer Ukrainian roots and covering the war in UkraineWanting her work to tell you what it feels likeHer first trip to Venezuala and how it was love at first sight Referenced:Daniella ZalcmanAnastasia Taylor LindYelena YemchukBen MakuchStephanie SinclairChristina PiaiaScout TufankjianKatie OrlinskyAmie Ferris-RotmanCarlos RawlinsAna Maria ArevaloAndrea Hernandez BriceñoLexi Grace ParraIWMF Website | Instagram“There's this psychological cocktail of rage and grief and desire to act, and since I don't have any actual useful skills, I'm not a doctor or psychologist or aid worker or fighter, or any of the things I sometimes wish I was, I felt the need to do something. And then there is also a totally selfish need to see it for myself. It feels compulsive. And not like in ‘this is my calling and I'm gonna save the world', but like it's compulsive enough to make you get on a plane to go to a country that's quite dangerous and in horrific turmoil. ”

Ambiguity is at the forefront of Richard Kalvar's photography. Richard, who describes context as the “enemy”, seeks mystery and multiple meanings through surprising framing and meticulous timing. He describes his approach as “more like poetry than photojournalism – it attacks on the emotional level.”Richard has done extensive personal, assignment and commercial work in the United States, France, Italy, England, and Japan, among others, has published a number of solo books including Earthlings (Terriens) in 2007 and his most recent title, Selected Writings, published in 2023 by Damiani, and he has had important exhibitions in the US, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.His work has appeared in Geo, The Paris Review, Creative Camera, Aperture, Zoom, Newsweek, and Photo, among many others. Editorial assignments and even commercial work have given Richard an additional opportunity to do personal photography. He did many documentary stories that allowed him to disengage from documentary mode when the occasion arose.Richard joined Magnum Photos as an associate member in 1975, and became a full member two years later. He subsequently served several times as vice president, and once as president of the agency. In episode 221, Richard discusses, among other things:How he ended up settling in ParisHis introduction to photographyHow humour is an intrinsic element of his photographshow he is playing with things he has trouble dealing withWhy he called up Robert DelpireVU agency becoming VivaHow he ended up in MagnumHis favourite cities to shoot inThe legal restrictions on shooting in public in different placesPublic attitudes towards taking photographs of strangers in publicHis new book, Selected WritingsWhy his interest is in single images that stand alone Referenced:Jérôme DucrotAndré KerteszHCBRobert FrankLee FriedlanderElliott ErwittRobert DelpireViva AgencyGuy LeQuerecGilles PeressMary Ellen MarkAlex MajoliJonas BendiksenPaolo PellegrinOlivia ArthurWebsite | Instagram“I'm most interested in having pictures stand alone, and each one is something you can get into and is a story in itself and is also an imaginary story. I'm working with reality, that's what's really interesting to me and it's also what's interesting about photography in general, that you're doing something that looks like real life but obviously isn't. that's the edge I like to work on. Where you have the impression that things are going on and not necessarily going on. If I have to tell a story, I feel a certain moral obligation to respect the truth or respect the feelings of the people that are in it. I think that's a noble thing but for my kind of work it's a break.”

Featuring:Aaron SchumannEugene RichardsMartin ParrGregory CrewdsonNick BrandtEmma HardyAntoine D'AgataIgor PosnerStacy KranitzIvor PrickettBertrand MeunierCurran HatlebergTrish MorrisseyMoises SamanYelena YemchukBenjamin RassmussenIan BerryLuca LocatelliCorinne DufkaMax PamLeonard Pongo

Leonard Pongo is a Belgian-Congolese photographer and visual artist. His long-term project The Uncanny, shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has earned him several international awards and world-wide recognition and was published as a book by GOST earlier this year (2023) as a result of Leonard receiving the Unseen-Gost Books Publishing Award.Leonard's work has been published worldwide and featured in numerous exhibitions including the recent IncarNations at the Bozar Center for Fine Arts and the The 3rd Beijing Photo Biennial at CAFA Art Museum. He was chosen as one of PDN's 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2016, is a recipient of the Visura Grant 2017, the Getty Reportage Grant 2018 and was shortlisted for the Leica Oskar Barnack award in 2022.Leonard's latest project, Primordial Earth, was shown at the Lubumbashi Biennial and at the Rencontres de Bamako where it was awarded the “Prix de l'OIF”. It was exhibited at the Brussels Centre for Fine Arts for Leonard's first institutional solo show in Belgium in 2021, at the Oostende Museum of Modern Art and is currently feartured as part of a group show entitled A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography at Tate Modern until January 14th 2024.Leonard divides his time between pursuing long term projects in Congo DR, teaching and assignment work and is also a member of The Photographic Collective. His work is part of institutional and private collections.In episode 219 Leornard discusses, among other things:Early creativity encouraged by his architect fatherHis first experience with photographyHis early desire to go to the DRCHis first trip in 2011 against the backdrop of an electionSensory overwhelmPlaying with mood and ambiguityWinning the Unseen-Gost Books Publishing AwardEditing down from 70,000 imagesHis Primordial Earth projectHis short film The Necessary EvilWebsite | Instagram“I think behind all the constructions and expectations, right or wrong, that I might have had, there was behind it at the core a very intense need for experience... the only way I could create relations to the land and the environment itself - not the people because that was easy, that was natural - but to the rest, the context, was through experiencing it. It felt to me that was the only way I could ever have anything to say about it.”

Featuring:Andrea ModicaJesse LenzMelissa DeWittTodd HidoKristen Joy EmackAnastasia SamoylovaMimi MollicaMimi PlumbJane Evelyn AtwoodChristopher AndersonTim CarpenterSofia KrysiakNelson ChanTom Booth WoodgerSilvana TrevaleGianluca GamberiniGregory BarkerDewi Lewis

Max Pam is an Australian photographer born in 1949 in suburban Melbourne, which as a teenager he found to be grim, oppressive and culturally isolated. He found refuge in the counter-culture of surfing and the imagery of National Geographic and Surfer Magazine and became determined to travel overseas.Max left Australia at 20, after accepting a job as a photographer assisting an astrophysicist. Together, the pair drove a VW Beetle from Calcutta to London. This adventure proved inspirational, and travel has remained a crucial and continuous link to his creative and personal development. As Gary Dufour noted in his essay in Indian Ocean Journals (Steidl, 2000): “Each photograph is shaped by incidents experienced as a traveller. His photographs extend upon the tradition of the gazetteer; each photograph a record of an experience, a personal account of an encounter somewhere in the world. Each glimpse is part of an unfolding story rather than simply a record of a place observed. While travel underscores his production Pam's photographs are not the accidental evidence of a tourist.”Max's work takes the viewer on compelling journeys around the globe, recording observations with an often surrealist intensity, matching the heightened sensory awareness of foreign travel. The work frequently implies an interior, psychic journey, corresponding with the physical journey of travel. His work in Asian counties is well represented in publications as are his travels in Europe, Australia, and the Indian Ocean Rim cultures including India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Yemen, The Republic of Tanzania, Mauritius, Madagascar, the Cocos and Christmas Islands. The images leave the viewer, as Tim Winton said in Going East (Marval 1992), “grateful for having been taken so mysteriously by surprise and so far and sweetly abroad.”Max's first survey show was held at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1986, and was followed by a mid-career retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1991. He was also the subject of a major exhibition at the Comptoir de la Photographie, Paris in 1990, which covered the work of three decades. He has published several highly acclaimed photographic monographs and 'carnets de voyage', including Going East: Twenty Years of Asian Photography (1992), Max Pam (1999), Ethiopia (1999) and Indian Ocean Journals (2000). Going East won Europe's major photo book award the Grand Prix du Livre Photographique in 1992. In the same year Max held his largest solo show to date at the Sogo Nara Museum of Art, Nara. He has published work in the leading international journals and is represented in major public and private collections in Australia, Great Britain, France and Japan.In episode 217 Max discusses, among other things:How he adopted the visual diary as his photographic approach.The influence of Diane Arbus.Why he chose such a specific period of his life to explore in his new memoir.How Arbus inspired him to shoot 6x6.How surfing in Australia introduced him travelling.How he ended up in India and why it fascinates him.The magic of film vs. digital.Working with book designers… or not.The time he failed to get into Magnum Photos.Surviving financially, teaching, and the importance of ‘marrying up'.Travel and family.Returning to Australia in a poor mental state, post typhoid.His wife's Alzheimer's and eventual death.Referenced:Philip Jones-GriffithDon McCullenLarry BurrowsDavid BaileyDiane ArbusEdward WestonTina ModottiRoger BallenGeorge OrwellBernard PlossuRamon PezSarah MoonOne Flew Over The Cuckoos NestPeter Beard Website | Instagram“I'm a very curious person and ultimately having the camera amplifies that curiosity in a really profound way. And it also gives you carte blanche to stick your head into areas where normally you'd think ‘ah, it's a bit dodgy, maybe not, I could get my head cut off it I stuck it in the hole…' But often then you think, ‘well come on man, you've got a camera there, isn't this part of your self image?' And so it's like this ticket to ride on something that is actually quite dangerous.”

Corinne Dufka is an American photojournalist, human rights researcher, criminal investigator, and psychiatric social worker.Following completion of her master's degree in social work, Corinne worked as a humanitarian volunteer and social worker in Latin America. She volunteered with Nicaraguan refugees during the country's revolution, and with victims of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. She then moved to El Salvador as a social worker with the Lutheran church. While in El Salvador, Corinne became close with local photojournalists, and was asked by the director of a local human rights organization to launch a program to document human rights abuses through photography.Over the course of her subsequent twelve year career as a photojournalist she covered more than a dozen of the world's bloodiest armed conflicts across three continents and was honored with the Robert Capa gold medal; a World Press Club Award; a Pulitzer nomination; and the Courage in Journalism Award.In 1998 Corinne went to Nairobi, Kenya to cover the bombing of the American Embassy. She arrived hours after the blast, and was deeply frustrated by 'missing the scoop.' Later, upon watching the news coverage of the attack, Corinne realized that she had lost “compassion” for the subjects of her work, and resolved to end her career as a photojournalist.After leaving photojournalism, Corinne joined Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization. In 2003, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, alternatively known as a ‘genius grant', for her journalistic and documentary work documenting the 'devastation' of Sierra Leone and the conflict's toll on human rights.Corinne left HRW in 2022 and is now an independent researcher and advisor, focusing on helping countries mitigate the risk of armed conflict. Corinne has a daughter and a foster son and lives in Maryland with her four dogs. Corinne's new book This Is War: Photographs from a Decade of Conflict is out now, published by G Editions. In episode 216 Corinne discusses, among other things:Her reasons for publishing a book of her photograhsThe experience of revisiting her archiveHer transition from psychiatric social worker to photojournalistHow she learnt the basics of photography in El SalvadorHow her family history and a challenges in childhood formed her independenceGetting badly injured in BosniaThe relative dangers of different types of conflictHer experiences of violence in LiberiaThe epiphany that led her to walk away from photojournalismHer work with Human Rights Watch‘Curiosity and compassion'Making an impact“I just don't do ‘hopeless'. I constantly try to find a way of having impact. And photography has so much impact. Using people's voices through testimony has so much impact. And one has to believe that people are inherently good and they inherently care and that they can be moved when presented with these images. People in positions of influence. So that is a given in everything I've done. That this work will have an impact. It may have to be repeated again and again and again, multiplied by other practitioners in photography or human rights, but it will have an impact.”