The Photowalk

Latest Episodes:

Reflections: Should I know you? Dec 15, 2025

Show notes

REFLECTIONS is a short-form feature within The Photowalk podcast, offering thoughtful observations on a creative life and the themes that we often discuss on Fridays, including perfectionism, impostor syndrome, comparison, confidence, and more. It's a pause at the start of the week to recalibrate, recorded in the studio between the walks.

Each Monday, you'll find Reflections on The Photowalk podcast feed, providing a creative reset to start the week. From Tuesday to Friday, it continues exclusively on our member-supported channel, The Extra Mile, for those who walk a little further with us.

From Terry Wogan to "my five-year-old could do that," a bemused look at how creatives are spoken to, and spoken over.

My sincere thanks to Arthelper, who sponsor this show, plus our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

#511 Stories hidden behind locked doors Dec 11, 2025

Show notes

Robert Gumpert joins me on the show from San Francisco, where he's spent decades photographing the parts of life most of us never see unless we work there, live there, or get pulled into the system. Hiring halls on the docks and the interview rooms inside the county jails have all been part of his working world.

His long-running project Take a Picture / Tell a Story was the one that initially caught my attention: a portrait made after a recorded conversation with someone in custody, giving a literal voice to people awaiting trial.

We also talk about his photographs of mariners heading out to sea, and his book Division Street, published by Dewi Lewis. That work looks at life under the flyovers and in the city's corners, where people without a home live just two blocks from some of the wealthiest startup companies on earth.

Alongside my conversation with Robert, Gene Westburg is back from last week with a follow-up question about street v travel photography. Fred Ash also returns, and Michael Brennan has posted something that will, I'm sure, spark a few ideas for anyone thinking about bringing their work to life in print. There are some thoughts about THE ONE feature and an invite to come to Scotland in 2026.

Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

Reflections: Farewell Martin Parr Dec 08, 2025

Show notes

Today, a reflection on Martin Parr's life, his eye for the everyday, and the legacy he leaves in British documentary photography.

Also see Charlotte Jansen's obituary in The Guardian.

My sincere thanks to Arthelper, who sponsor this show, plus our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

#510 The Beautiful Game Dec 05, 2025

Show notes

In between the letters and features, my guest today is Laura Gates, a fast-rising documentary sports photographer. We talk about the pitches where stories begin, the momentum behind the women's game, and the moments on and off the field that meet Laura's curious lens.

She self-published her first book and sold more copies than many photographers manage through traditional publishers, which speaks to the strength of her work. We also talk about confidence when you are starting out as a photographer, the realities of building a creative business, and the place of women in sport as the wider picture continues to grow and evolve.

From the mailbag today, Gene Westburg writes about the calm he's found walking with a camera and a four-legged friend, Alex Boone sends in the picture that defined his 2025, made on a trusty smartphone, and Fred Ash throws me a why question to wrestle with, plus street photographer Valérie Jardin guest-writes a Friday Reflection and considers how AI may affect street photography.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

Reflections: Marsha Dec 01, 2025

Show notes

I met someone called Marsha last week, which has inspired this reflection about listening.

My sincere thanks to Arthelper, who sponsor this show, plus our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

#509 The world went completely dark Nov 27, 2025

Show notes

This week's edition is guest-focused. Paul Berriff OBE, has lived a life few could imagine. A filmmaker and photographer whose work spans more than 180 prime-time documentaries, he has survived a helicopter crash, escaped a sinking ship in a North Sea storm, crawled from the wreckage of a downed aircraft, and lived through the collapse of both towers on September 11 while filming inside the disaster zone. His tape from that day remains one of the most important visual records of the south tower falling.

Before film came photography. In the 1960s, Paul made remarkably natural portraits of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, long before fame turned them into myth. Later, with what he called a "clockwork camera," he moved into observational documentary and eventually built his own production company. Alongside all this, he trained as a firefighter and helped carry out more than 850 RNLI sea rescues.

The conversation moved differently from how I imagined it might. Two major stories emerged. One is his account of filming inside the World Trade Center as the towers came down, surviving when the buildings collapsed around him. The other is the story of a rescue by helicopter in brutal conditions, a moment when a second narrow escape became part of his history.

I'll also share a little more about the craft of photogravure that we'll be exploring on the new Scottish retreat in June. There's a reminder of this month's assignment, the last one of the year, before we shift our focus to THE ONE in December.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

Reflections: Who needs a professional anyway? Nov 24, 2025

Show notes

These professional people, highly overrated, I say. If you want a job done properly, just do it yourself, surely?

My sincere thanks to Arthelper, who sponsor this show, plus our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

#508 Silence, solitude and sanctuary Nov 21, 2025

Show notes

Artist, writer and thinker Gael Hillyard joins me to talk about her creative life, from painting, writing and photography, to the deep-winter months she spent as artist-in-residence on Fair Isle, to the ten silent days she lived inside a retreat with no conversation at all.

We explore how her work has been shaped by a childhood spent in a Victorian atelier, the two studios she now keeps in the Highlands, and the weather-beaten coastlines she keeps returning to as both muse and anchor.

And in the mailbag this week, Spike Boydell, our man from the canoe down under, has been thinking about slowing down, and I mean really slowing down. Comedy-writer-in-chief Hegaard the Dane sends word about solitude and the small matter of spending a night or three in jail! John Kenny writes about trees and the Sycamore Gap, which has an unexpected local relevance for me this weekend, and Bill Frische has been photographing a 'monster'.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

Reflections: Toxic Voyeurism Nov 17, 2025

Show notes

Today, Toxic Voyeurism. It's a real thing, although how do we notice it's happening?

My sincere thanks to Arthelper, who sponsor this show, plus our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

#507 What we hear, what we see, what we keep Nov 14, 2025

Show notes

This week's Photowalk features Bil Repenning, a musician who's shifting his creative energy into photography. Music has shaped the way he sees the world, and you can hear that within our conversation. Following an accident five years ago, he began building a photographic practice rooted in documentary portrait work, taking the craft seriously as he moves into this next chapter. We talk about the music that shaped him, the radio that shaped us both, and what it's like to change course mid-career without the fanfare or drama, just a genuine desire to make good work. It's a conversation about starting later, learning on the move, and finding a new place to stand creatively.

From the mailbag, John Anderton shares a deeply personal story about his mum, Winnie, and the way he chose to document her life as dementia changed their days. What he's written is a reminder of how powerful it can be to hold on to family stories in more than one way. There's also a note from Dominique Martel, who's wrestling with a familiar modern problem: subscription overload! We have this month's One Word assignment from Liza Gershman, and you're invited to join the show in Scotland for a new look Scottish Retreat in June 2026.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.