A Small Voice: Conversations with photographers and filmmakers
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- 4. Nov. 2026
Über den Podcast
Fortnightly in-depth interviews featuring a diverse range of talented, innovative, world-class photographers from established, award-winning and internationally exhibited stars to young and emerging talents discussing their lives, work and process with fellow photographer, Ben Smith. The most recent 50 episodes are on this free feed, 200+ more are in the archive! TO ACCESS THE FULL ARCHIVE OF PAST EPISODES + SPECIAL EXCLUSIVE CONTENT, BECOME A MEMBER FOR £4 PER MONTH!
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294 - Vladimir Karamazov
Born in Sofia (Bulgaria), Vladimir Karamazov graduated classical drama theatre at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts. He has a 25 years career as a professional actor and part of the company of the …
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Born in Sofia (Bulgaria), Vladimir Karamazov graduated classical drama theatre at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts. He has a 25 years career as a professional actor and part of the company of the Bulgarian National Theater “Ivan Vazov”. He has performed many roles in theatre cinema and television, but has always loved photography making it his occupation since 2019. He looks for the images, the places, the atmosphere of the plays in which he has performed. And looks for special people with dramatic and interesting stories. Photography helps him understand humanity in its complexity and scale, and reveals the true nature of it. Over the past few years, he has won a number of photography competitions, including from Sony World Photo Awards, the British Journal of Photography and Lensculture.
Vladimir recently published his debut photobook with GOST books, For the Grace of God, which takes takes us into the notorious Belene Prison, located in northern Bulgaria on the border with Romania; the most heavily guarded facility of its type in the country. The work focusses primarily on inmates serving life sentences without parole.
On episode 294, Vladimir discusses, among other things;
- First night nerves as an actor.
- Thinking only about photography.
- The potential for identity crisis as actor turned photographer.
- How acting taught him about narrative.
- Learning from Anders Petersen.
- How he became curious about life inside prison.
- And how he found his way into the project.
- Solving the question of what a prisoner without parole looks like.
- Learning a lesson in forgiveness.
- Getting help from George Georgiou and Vanessa Winship.
- An insight into the childhoods of prisoners as the source of their criminality.
- Not wanting to give his phone number and changing his mind about doing that.
- Next project on a prison for young offenders.
- A story of hope for a prisoner who was released after 26 years in prison.
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293 - Christina Assi
Christina Assi is a Lebanese photojournalist and photo editor. After losing a leg in an Israeli tank attack in southern Lebanon in October 2023, she began campaigning for journalists' safety.Christina was born …
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Christina Assi is a Lebanese photojournalist and photo editor. After losing a leg in an Israeli tank attack in southern Lebanon in October 2023, she began campaigning for journalists' safety.
Christina was born in Lebanon. Growing up there in the 1990s, she lived through the instability of the civil war that she documented in multiple stories. In 2005 she moved to Doha, capital city of Qatar, with her family. Christina graduated from the Notre Dame University-Louaize in Lebanon with a bachelor's degree in communications and journalism. In 2018, she began to work for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Cyprus as a photo editor.
On 13 October 2023, while live reporting on a column of smoke on the Israeli-Lebanese border along with six other journalists, she was a victim of an Israeli tank shell attack in Alma al-Shaab. The attack involved two strikes and resulted in Christina losing her right leg.One of the two explosions killed her best friend, Reuters correspondent Issam Abdallah. Five more of their colleagues were wounded. All journalists were wearing bulletproof vests and helmets, clearly marked as press. Christina demands that the attack be considered a war crime.
Since then, Christina became a campaigner for journalists' safety, giving numerous interviews and propelling a rehabilitation programme for people with similar life-altering injuries. On 21 July 2024, with colleague, journalist Dylan Collins, she carried the torch in Vincennes, France, ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic games, representing the journalists who died in the line of duty.
At the end of 2024, the BBC included Assi in its list 100 Women, which recognises the most influential women in the world each year.
On episode 292, Christina discusses, among other things:
- Early memories of growing up in Lebanon
- Her first job as a photo Editor for AFP in Cypress
- Buying her first camera with the prize money from a photography competition
- First opportunites with photography assignments
- Being sent to Lebanon in the aftermath of the October 7th terrorist attacks by Hamas
- The story of the day of the attack that changed her life
- Waking up in hospital and trying to make sense of what had happeneed
- finding out her close friend Issam Abdallah had been killied
- The killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqla
- Her insight into how inaccessible the world is to wheelchair users
- Recuperation and recovery
- Documenting herself
- Her new relationship with the camera… and letting go of perfectionism
- Making a short film about her experience
- Her advocacy work for the protection of journalists and demand for accountability
- The way in which her experience has changed her perception of the kind of stories she wants to cover
Instagram | CPJ piece (with links)
Episode sponsors:
- ThinkTank Photo - New: FocusPoint Crossbody camera bag!
- Boat Drinks Studio web design. Claim 15% off a new website. Link in bio.
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292 - Reuben wu
Reuben Wu is a multidisciplinary artist who explores new ways of telling compelling stories about the world we inhabit. His work with aerial lighting and long-exposure photography has defined a singular style …
Shownotes
Reuben Wu is a multidisciplinary artist who explores new ways of telling compelling stories about the world we inhabit.
His work with aerial lighting and long-exposure photography has defined a singular style in contemporary landscape photography and belongs in the Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the MoMA.
His practice spans fine art and creative collaborations with brands.
Reuben was born in Liverpool to parents who had immigrated from Hong Kong. Following their guidance, he pursued Industrial Design at university, though his academic focus often took a backseat to DJing, collecting records and enjoying Sheffield’s vibrant music scene.
After graduating, his passion for music led him back to Liverpool’s creative community, and with Daniel Hunt, Mira Aroyo, and Helen Marnie, he formed the band Ladytron in 1999. Their first single earned Single of the Week in the NME. Soon they were signed to a label and invited on a world tour, at which point Reuben left his job at an industrial design consultancy to dedicate the next decade to music.
When Ladytron took a break, Reuben again faced the challenge of reinvention. Though uncertain, he committed to pursuing photography professionally. After years of persistence and occasional strokes of luck, he established himself in the field, bringing his own visual perspective shaped by his design and musical background.
Reuben works globally and lives in Chicago, USA.
On episode 292, Reuben discusses, among other things:
- His creative family
- Industrial design
- Musical success with Ladytron
- The challenge of reinventio
- How his incredible light paintings came about
- The role of serendipity.
Episode sponsors:
- ThinkTank Photo - New: FocusPoint Crossbody camera bag!
- Boat Drinks Studio web design. Claim 15% off a new website. Link in bio.
Become a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £4 per month.
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291 - Iva Sidash
Iva Sidash is an independent documentary photographer and visual storyteller from Ukraine. Born in 1995, she focuses on deeply personal narratives shaped by the realities of war. Since the onset of Russia’s …
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Iva Sidash is an independent documentary photographer and visual storyteller from Ukraine. Born in 1995, she focuses on deeply personal narratives shaped by the realities of war. Since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, she has documented intimate stories of fragility, resistance, and memory that unfold behind the frontlines.
Her work merges artistic sensibility with documentary practice, revealing the human experience through a lens of emotion, nuance, and resilience.
A graduate of the International Center of Photography in New York, Iva is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers and Women Photograph. She is the recipient of the 2024 Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant, a Women Photograph fellowship, and the Chris Hondros Award at the Eddie Adams Workshop.
Her photographs have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, INSIDER, Der Spiegel, and The Financial Times. Her exhibitions span both solo and group presentations across the United States and Europe, highlighting her growing
international recognition as a compelling voice in documentary photography.On episode 291, Iva discusses, among other things:
- Daily normality in Kyiv
- How a car accident led her to street photography
- How she transitioned from street photography to documenting the war
- The power of trying to portray life during wartime
- Ethical concerns
- Her project What Is Unseen and what the title means
- Winning the Ian Parry Grant (and being in that ‘family’)...
- …And the Chris Hondras award
- Going to the ICP in New York
- Her story there about injured Ukrainian soldiers undergoing rehabilitation on Staten Island
- Future plans for other projects she’s interested in, including diaristic work
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290 - Richard Sharum
Richard Sharum is an editorial and documentary photographer based in upstate New York. Mainly focusing on socio-economic or social justice dilemmas concerning the human condition, his work has been regarded as …
Shownotes
Richard Sharum is an editorial and documentary photographer based in upstate New York. Mainly focusing on socio-economic or social justice dilemmas concerning the human condition, his work has been regarded as in-depth, up-close and personal.
Selected exhibitions have occurred in Kyoto, Japan, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Reggio Emilia, Italy, New York City, Boston, Chicago and Dallas, and his work has been added to the permanent collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and The Wittliff Collection, as well as others.
Richard's commissions include those by The Meadows Foundation, Centers for Community Cooperation, Harvard Law School, Student Conservation Association, Children's Medical Center (Oncology), Children's Cancer Fund.
His publications include those by LFI (Leica International), British Journal of Photography, LensCulture, The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Publico (Portugal), El Pais (Spain), Observer (UK), The Wall Street Journal, B+W Photo Magazine, Huck Magazine, Glasstire, PATRON, Creative Review, among others.
Richard has published two photobooks, Campesina Cuba and Spina Americana, both with GOST. His third, American Homicide, will be released early in 2027, also by GOST. The last two of these titles will be joined in 2028 by American Avenue, to form a trilogy of books entitled Of Thee I Sing.
He is represented by The Hulett Collection, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
On episode 290, Richard discusses, among other things:
- His goal of reaching a wider audience among the general public.
- Team window vs. team mirror
- His new book American Homocide
- The fascination for true crime among the public
- How murder affects all the groups involved
- Getting access to the detective squad he embedded with
- The portrayal of violence on screen
- His obsession with time
- The need to be empathetic and open
- The impact of being exposed so many murder victims
- The murder detectives he got to know and photograph
- Corresponding with the perpetrators
- Part three of his planned trilogy, American Avenue
- The state of the photobook industry and the unfairness of the current system
Referenced:
- W Eugene Smith
- Sebastião Salgado
- James Nachtwey
- Larry Towell
- Leonard Freed
- Susan Meiselas
- Gordon Parks
Website | Instagram | Lecture at Columbia
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289 - Clémentine Schneidermann
Clémentine Schneidermann is a French photographer living and working between Paris and South Wales. She recently completed a practice-based PhD at the University of South Wales, Cardiff entitled Photographing …
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Clémentine Schneidermann is a French photographer living and working between Paris and South Wales. She recently completed a practice-based PhD at the University of South Wales, Cardiff entitled Photographing Children in a Social Context: Narratives and Strategies (2021). Clémentine works on long term projects & commissions and is interested in new creative practices in social documentary photography. Her approach is collaborative and playful, with an interest in communities and childhood, as well as our relationship to identity and culture. She is a co-founder of Bleak Fabulous with Charlotte James, a photography-based creative studio working across different disciplines with an emphasis on communities and collaboration.
On episode 289, Clémentine discusses, among other things:
- How having a camera made it acceptable to stare at people
- Studying in Switzerland… and then Newport, Wales
- Falling in love with Wales immediately
- Her book project, I Call Her Lisa Marie
- Her project Ffasiwn
- Collaborating with kids… and Charlotte James
- Getting involved with Alexander MacQueen
- Her forthcoming book marking ten year of Ffasiwn
- Bleak Fabulous - trying to create stable income
- Winning the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize
- Work she has done in Greenland
- Her other collaboration: The Emmas
Referenced:
- Mary Ellen Mark
- Sebastian Bruno
- Bruce Davidson
- David Barnes
- Ken Grant
- Paul Reas
- Lina Hashim
- Jacob Aue Sobol
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288 - Aria Shahrokhshahi
Aria Shahrokhshahi (b. 1996) is a British-Iranian multi-disciplinary artist, whose practice has been shaped by a deep fascination with the intricate dynamics of diverse communities and the complexities of the …
Shownotes
Aria Shahrokhshahi (b. 1996) is a British-Iranian multi-disciplinary artist, whose practice has been shaped by a deep fascination with the intricate dynamics of diverse communities and the complexities of the human condition. With a focus on social structures and the human experience, Shahrokhshahi's work serves as a critical exploration of the relationships and power dynamics that inform everyday life.
Aria’s debut photobook, Wet Ground, featuring images from Ukraine shot over a period of several years both before and after the Russian invasion in Feburary 2022, was published in April 2026 by Loose Joints.
He is currently putting the finishing touches to a feature documentary film entitled While We Heal, which also focusses on the war in Ukraine and explores the themes of healing, loss, and resilience.
On episode 288, Aria discusses, among other things:
- Formative experiences (11 different schools!) growing up in Nottingham
- How walking around the city with a camera was the start of his photography journey
- Negative feedback Facebook group / YouTube channel
- Early education at the Photo Parlour lab (later named Sequence) from Dan Wheelan
- Using large format and why the decision to shoot B&W came out of the cost of film
- Falling in love with Ukraine
- It not being enough to just take pictures
- Why ‘Ukraine, I guess?’ was an informal category of picture during editing
- Having nothing to say about war but being interested in what happens around it
- The way in which war rearranges the social hierarchy
- Poem by Charlotte Shevchenko-Knight
- How the title ‘Wet Ground’, and the book itself, came about
- The importance of collaboration
- The feature length doc he is making in Ukraine
- The importance of having a commercial practice
Referenced:
- Lee Friedlander
- Laytoya Ruby Frazer
- Don McCullin
- Tim Hetherington (Which Way Is The Front Line From Here)
- Shelby Lee Adams
- Minor White
- Alec Soth
- Gregory Halpern
- Nigel Shafran
- Alessandra Sanguinetti
- Myriam Boulos
- Sohrab Hura
- Lightwork
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287 - Lorenzo Meloni
Lorenzo Meloni is an Italian photographer. He has documented some of the defining conflicts of the 21st century across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. For more than a decade, he has worked in …
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Lorenzo Meloni is an Italian photographer.
He has documented some of the defining conflicts of the 21st century across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. For more than a decade, he has worked in territories marked by wars, revolutions and profound political and social transformations, developing a visual practice that views conflict not merely as an event, but as a historical, material and cultural process.
In recent years, his work has expanded beyond the battlefield. Revelation, an ongoing project, explores how science and technology are changing our relationship to the material world.
In 2022, he published the monograph We Don’t Say Goodbye, a fragmented narrative on the rise, dominance and fall of the Islamic State as a territorial entity. TIME named it one of the 20 Best Photobooks of 2022.
On episode 287, Lorenzo discusses, among other things:
- How he has changed his way of working
- 'Starting as a revolutionary and becoming a deserter'
- How his photography journey began in Yemen
- How the power of photography is metaphorical not descriptive
- His interest in borders and history
- His book, We Don’t Say Goodbye. The theme of repetition. And why the cover is orange
- The caliphate and Islamic State
- His now project, Revelation
- Focussing on one thing at a time
- Dealing with the instability of a freelance life and keeping some freedom
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286 - Ximena Borrazás
Ximena Borrazás is a Uruguayan photographer and documentary filmmaker born in Montevideo in 1992. She focuses on armed conflicts, migration, and humanitarian crises. Her work combines visual sensitivity with a …
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Ximena Borrazás is a Uruguayan photographer and documentary filmmaker born in Montevideo in 1992. She focuses on armed conflicts, migration, and humanitarian crises. Her work combines visual sensitivity with a strong commitment to social justice, often addressing the experiences of women and displaced populations.
She has published with major international outlets, including National Geographic, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, DW, France 24, Al Jazeera, and the Associated Press, and has worked with institutions such as UNHCR, UNESCO, and IOM.
Ximena’s project in northern Ethiopia documents the devastating aftermath of the Tigray conflict, one of the deadliest wars of the 21st century. Her images portray survivors of sexual violence, displaced families, and the enduring effects of famine and trauma. This work earned her the 2024 Tom Stoddart Award for Excellence, the Gentex Corp Personal Safety Award from the Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant, and the Africa Mundi Award for best photographic publication in Planeta Futuro of El País.
Her long-term documentary project The Scars of War, which began in Tigray, combines photography, testimony, and documentation to investigate conflict-related sexual violence through a forensic lens. Rather than treating sexual violence as an isolated act, the project traces it as a weapon of war, examining physical, psychological, and social evidence left behind, and the systems, or lack thereof, that respond to it.
Ximena is currently based in Ukraine where, aside from continuing to photograph, she has a full-time job as a Liaison and Communications Officer with the United Nations.
On episode 286, Ximena discusses, among other things:
- Working for the UN in Ukraine
- Her first experience of visiting the Polish border
- The nature of working amidst drone warfare
- Challenges of being a freelancer in a conflict zone
- Why she doesn’t really want to be a photographer
- The experience of being in Kyiv on a daily basis
- Her life before photography
- Early forays into documentary work
- Her project in Tigray, Ethiopia and the context of the conflict there
- How she began The Scars of War, her work on conflict related sexual violence
- How serendipity on a HEFAT course led to publication in The Guardian
- How some X-rays changed everything and why they were so powerful
- How she has extended her project to other areas, and focussed on male victims
- How her job at the UN combines with her advocacy work
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285 - Sam Faulkner
Sam Faulkner is a London-based photographer and the founder of Print Swap, an iOS app. where photographers and visual artists exchange gallery-quality physical prints directly. No buying, no selling, no …
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Sam Faulkner is a London-based photographer and the founder of Print Swap, an iOS app. where photographers and visual artists exchange gallery-quality physical prints directly. No buying, no selling, no follower counts.
Sam came to photography the hard way, travelling into Afghanistan in 1994 with a battered Canon, a few rolls of film and very little plan. His work has since moved between reportage, portraiture and long-form photographic projects, including Unseen Waterloo, his battlefield portrait series exhibited at Somerset House.
Print Swap began with a gap Sam’s own wall and a long-held habit among photographers: trading prints of each other's work. In a world of endless images and thin attention, it is built on a simple belief: a print on the wall changes the relationship.
In episode 285, Sam discusses, among other things:
- How his new app., Print Swap, came to fruition.
- How he got into reportage photography in search of adventure.
- Kashmir and Afghanistan - talkng your way in and talking your way out.
- Coming back with the six rolls of film that won him the Ian Parry Award.
- The influence of Nick Danziger’s book Danziger’s Adventures.
- Changes in the industry.
- His global story about ‘the war on drugs’.
- Lessons learned from shooting Mario Testino.
- The threat of AI and the issue of trusted brands within the news media.
- His decision to step back from photojournalism.
- His new working life directing commercials.
- His Unseen Waterloo project.
Referenced:
- David Hurn
- Jonas Bendiksen
- Ian Teh
- Omar Ashtawy
- Neil Burgess
- Nick Danziger
- Aidan Sullivan
- Mario Testino
- Stephen Dupont
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284 - Harriet Logan
Harriet Logan is a multi-award winning photographer who spent the first half of her career working on international assignments in places such as Sudan, Angola, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Somalia …
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Harriet Logan is a multi-award winning photographer who spent the first half of her career working on international assignments in places such as Sudan, Angola, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Somalia for a range of international newspapers and magazines.
She subsequently turned her attention to working commercially on advertising campaigns for various big brand clients, including The Pictet Group and Canon, alongside some of the worlds largest advertising agencies.Today she curates the Incite Project, an issue driven collection of photographs broadly based around the subject of world events and conflict.
Harriet is also the executive director of The Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant which has run for over 30 years and which she won in 1992. The grant has a mission to support young and emerging Photojournalists.
She co-parents 4 boys with her husband Mark, an owl, a peregrine falcon, three dogs, a dressage horse, and a bunch of sheep, cows, chickens and pigs.
On episode 284, Harriet discusses, among other things:
- Her journey into photojournalism from art college in the USA
- Her early project on an Aids patient, with whom she became close
- Beginners luck at the Poll tax riots in London in 1990
- Ending up in southern Sudan…and then Somalia
- Winning the The Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant and how it changed everything
- The reality of being a female photojournalist in the 90’s
- An example of the danger of inadvertantly fucking over your subject
- He story about victims of rape in Kosovo during the Balkans conflict
- Being sent to Afghanistan for the first time by The Sunday Times…
- …And returning four years later to find the women and girls she had photographed there
- A close call on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad
- Motherhood, falling out of love with being a photographer, and the decision to quit photojournalism
- Becoming the Executive Director of the The Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant
- The new Tom Stoddart Award for Excellence
- How The Incite Project came about and how she defines what it is
- The fundamental strangeness of having graphic and disturbing photojounalism framed on your walls
Referenced:- Eugene Richards, Exploding Into Life
- Don McCullin
- Les Wilson
- Len Greener
- Josef Koudelka
- Cartier Bresson
- Robert Capa
- W. Eugene Smith
- Colorific
- Aidan Sullivan
- Tom Stoddart
- Michael Rand
- Jillian Edelstein
- Simon Norfolk
- Jenny Matthews
- Jeremy Clarkson
- AA Gill
- Mark Hix
- Tristran Lund
- Giles Duley, Legacy of War Foundation
- Laura Pannack
- Omar Ashtawey
- Trevor Paglen
- Richard Mosse
- Ed Burtynsky
- Luke Delahey
- Ed Clark
- Network Photographers
- Simon Roberts
- Matt Black
- Lorenzo Meloni
- Chris Donovan
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283 - Henri Kisielewski
Henri Kisielewski is a self-taught photographer whose work is concerned with the porous boundary between fact and fiction in documentary media. His practice has been recognised and supported by several grants …
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Henri Kisielewski is a self-taught photographer whose work is concerned with the porous boundary between fact and fiction in documentary media.
His practice has been recognised and supported by several grants and awards, and he has exhibited in group shows and festivals internationally. In 2025, he was shortlisted for both the Prix Élysée and Grand Prix Images Vevey.
In 2021, Henri was employed by Magnum Photos to conduct the first complete review of their historic archive - he remains the only person to have seen the nearly 1 million images within. Informed by this experience, and his studies in human geography, Henri’s work operates at the intersection of real-world issues and their modes of representation.
His first book Non Fiction was published by Le Bec en l’air in 2024. It was selected by Clément Chéroux as one of his ten books of that year and shortlisted for the Prix Nadar in 2025.
Henri is also the founder of Soft Eyes, a new photography lecture series which runs three times a year at Reference Point in London. It aims to open up space for community and dialogue outside of institutional frameworks, inviting artists.
On episode 283, Henri discusses, among other things:
- How A Small Voice has been part of his photographic education.
- How he came to assist Magnum photographer, Olivia Arthur.
- And run a dilapidated hotel for three years.
- How a year in Valencia changed his life.
- His decision to spend money on a.) a trip to Ibiza or b.) a camera.
- Returning to the hotel for his first proper photo project.
- Learning to edit from Olivia Arthur.
- How his book project Non Fiction came about.
- Photography and documentary media’s relationship to truth.
- The cast of characters who appear in Non Fiction.
- The amazing story behind his new book project, Agloe N.Y.
- Post-truth America.
- The new photography event in London he is curating, Soft Eyes.
Referenced:Become a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £4 per month.
Need a website? Or someone you know does? EXCLUSIVE LISTENER OFFER: 15% off when booked by Christmas 2026! Go here.
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282 - Richard Young
Richard Young is a photographer who was once known as the “king of the paparazzi”. His portfolio is a who’s who of some of the biggest stars in film, music, stage and popular culture from the past fifty years …
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Richard Young is a photographer who was once known as the “king of the paparazzi”.
His portfolio is a who’s who of some of the biggest stars in film, music, stage and popular culture from the past fifty years. From gatecrashing Elizabeth Taylor’s party for Richard Burton’s 50th at the Dorchester to later being invited to photograph her Damehood celebrations. He can count the first photographs of Paul Getty Jr. after his kidnapping as just one of his many scoops.
He was born in Hackney to a Jewish family and his father ran a hosiery stall in Berwick Street market for more than sixty years. Richard has dyslexia and after being expelled from school at fourteen, he went to Soho and landed a job in fashionable clothes shop frequented by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, David Hockney and Francis Bacon.
A two-year stint in New York followed, working as a studio assistant at Electric Lady Studios, before he returned to London and found himself in a bookshop handed a camera and told to get on with photographing authors.
For the past fifty years, he has lived a nocturnal, high octane life of private jets, parties and exclusive events, eventually becoming as much a fixture in the world of celebrity as the people he photographed.
Richard lives in London with his wife Susan. His photography gallery is in London and has visitors from around the world.
On episode 282, Richard discusses, among other things:
- Wanting to escape school
- Learning that trust is currency
- Crashing Richard Burton’s birthday party
- And how the proceeds from the resulting picture bought him his first house
- How his journey into photography began with a roll of blank film
- Adventures in New York and Paris
- Having a guardian angel
- Still being sent on jobs at 79
- Turning up to Freddie Mercury’s party in drag by mistake
- How he navigated the switch to digital
- Why he reccommends that young photographers experiment with film
- Photographing flowers …and the east end of London
- The importance of saying sorry when necessary
- His gallery in west London
- How the business has changed
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281 - Ilvy Njiokiktjien
Ilvy Njiokiktjien is a Dutch photojournalist, filmmaker, podcast host and educator who has been creating and sharing stories for almost two decades. She is based in Utrecht, the Netherlands and is a …
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Ilvy Njiokiktjien is a Dutch photojournalist, filmmaker, podcast host and educator who has been creating and sharing stories for almost two decades. She is based in Utrecht, the Netherlands and is a contributing photographer to VII Foundation. Ilvy is committed to documenting the social and political issues that shape our world. Her work is characterized by a sensitive eye and a compassionate and personal relationship with her subjects.
For nearly 2 decades, she chronicled South Africa’s first post-apartheid generation. Ilvy became intrigued by these young adults and portrayed them in her own, personal and intimate style. “Equality is there on paper, but a majority of young people believes white South Africans still have better chances, as the legacy of centuries of inequality is still there.” The result is the project Born Free – Mandela’s Generation of Hope, which sparked a documentary, an interactive website, a book, feature articles, and a traveling exhibition.
Her work with Ukraine’s LGBTQ community in March 2022 tells the tale of people’s loves and fears – and their resolve in the face of Russian aggression. Ilvy’s latest project on co-housing follows people who opt to live in non-traditional groups or who welcome extended family members into a shared home.
Ilvy was the first woman to win the Dutch Silver Camera Award for photographer of the year and was named the first ever Photographer Laureate of the Netherlands in 2013. In addition to numerous awards from international organizations such as World Press Photo and POYi, Ilvy’s images have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Guardian, Stern, Der Spiegel, TIME, and other major outlets. She has exhibited at Visa pour l’Image in France, New York’s Photoville, and museums and festivals around the world.
On episode 281, Ilvy discusses, among other things:
- Her foray into podcasting for Canon
- The pattern of her work life
- How things have changed since she started
- Collaboration and the importance of writing and interviews
- Approach to personal long-term projects
- Her current project about ‘receiving states’
- Her approach to research
- Why it’s good to reinvent yourself
- Using a simple Google search to generate ideas
- Her project in South Africa, Born Free
- Why she got kicked out of her internship on The Star newspaper
- Her interest in ‘interactive long reads’ and the book she made with one of her subjects
- The perils and advantages of social media
- Her family history project and the joint exhibition that came of it
- The tendency for younger documentary photographers to be introspective and why that might be
- Her foray into podcasting - asking her fellow VII photographers four questions
- The importance of failure
- Her 'dream story'
Referenced:
- Carl De Keyser
- Matt Black
- Sara Terry
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280 - Jon McCormack
Jon McCormack is - as plainly stated on his Linked-In profile - a Photographer, Nerd, Educator and Conservationist His photographic work is deeply informed by his upbringing in the stark, untamed landscapes of …
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Jon McCormack is - as plainly stated on his Linked-In profile - a Photographer, Nerd, Educator and Conservationist
His photographic work is deeply informed by his upbringing in the stark, untamed landscapes of the Australian Outback, where early life among sheep and cattle fostered a profound respect for nature’s rhythms of resilience and fragility. Beginning as a teenager photographing quiet, often-overlooked moments in the bush, he developed a photographic voice rooted in patience, attention, and ecological empathy. Today, his images explore the intricate patterns and emotional textures of wild places, seeking to inspire both wonder and a sense of responsibility, and are widely published and used by global conservation organizations to advocate for the protection of fragile ecosystems.
In addition to photography Jon is also actively involved in conservation and social good organizations. He is a member of The Explorer’s Club, a founding board member of Sealegacy, co-founder of his non-profit in Kenya, The Kilgoris Project and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Alongside his creative work, Jon has a day job as a tech nerd. He is Vice President of Camera & Photos Software Engineering at Apple in California, leading the software team responsible for the iPhone camera.
His new photobook entitiled Patterns: Art Of The Natural World, is published by Damiani and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Vital Impacts, the non-profit founded in 2021 by photographer Ami Vitale and visual journalist Eileen Mignoni to advance conservation through visual storytelling, community partnership, and strategic investment in local solutions.
On episode 280, Jon discusses, among other things:
- His formative experiences on a remote Australian farm and how that influenced the person he became
- Discovering his love of mathematics… and of nature… and photography
- How his ‘impossible to predict' career in tech began at a conference in Manchester, UK
- How is current role with Apple allows him to ‘live photography’ for his day job
- A couple of major technical advances in mobile phone photography
- His thoughts on the impact and implications of AI
- His new book, Patterns, and how it came from his experience of shooting during Covid
- The challenge of trying to resolve the tension between his environmentalism and working in the tech industry
- His close connection to Vital Impacts, to whom he is donating 100% of the proceeds from the book
- His level of optimism vs. pessimism re. the chances of environmental armageddon
Referenced:
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279 - Dragana Jurišić
Dragana Jurišić is a photographer, writer and filmmaker. She has exhibited extensively and won numerous awards. Dragana’s work is in several significant collections, including the National Gallery of Ireland …
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Dragana Jurišić is a photographer, writer and filmmaker. She has exhibited extensively and won numerous awards. Dragana’s work is in several significant collections, including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Arts Council Collection, the Irish State Art Collection (OPW), the Bank of Spain, and others.
Her first book, YU: The Lost Country, received accolades worldwide. Her second book, Museum, a collaboration with Paula Meehan, was published in July 2019 and is now in its 2nd edition. Her Own, published in December 2022, received outstanding reviews in El País, The Irish Times and RTE Culture. Dragana is currently working on her first feature-length documentary, The Last Balkan Cowboy (working title).
In episode 279, Dragana discusses, among other things:
- Her forthcoming debut documentary.
- How everything she’s done is an attempt at making sense of her experience during the Balkan war
- Her book YU: The Lost Country
- The influence of Rebecca West’s book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia
- How she would measure the success of the new film
- Wanting to reach as large an audience as possible
- The imposter syndrome she felt as a first time film maker
- Being ‘ergonomic’ about the way she approaches making
- The story of her Aunt and her book Her Own
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278 - Nederlands Foto Museum Special
Featuring: Sjef van Duin, Librarian Roderick van der Loos, Interim Director Zippora Elders, incoming General & Artistic Director Grace Wong-Si-Kwie, Head of Presentations and Public Outreach Guinevere Ras …
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Featuring:
- Sjef van Duin, Librarian
- Roderick van der Loos, Interim Director
- Zippora Elders, incoming General & Artistic Director
- Grace Wong-Si-Kwie, Head of Presentations and Public Outreach
- Guinevere Ras, Curator of opening exhibition Awakening in Blue
- Martijn van den Broek, Head of Collections
- Joop De Jong, Guest Curator of opening exhibition, Rotterdam In Focus
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277 - Zackary Canepari
Zackary Canepari is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow whose work moves between documentary film and photography. He began as a photojournalist in India and Pakistan before creating the …
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Zackary Canepari is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow whose work moves between documentary film and photography. He began as a photojournalist in India and Pakistan before creating the Sundance-screened series California Is a place, a portrait of the golden state unraveling at the edges.
He later co-directed the feature documentary T-Rex (SXSW), following teenage Olympic boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields as she fought her way toward gold; the film was adapted by MGM into the narrative feature The Fire Inside. His Guggenheim-supported project Flint Is a place expanded documentary storytelling across film, photography, archival material, and immersive media, earning a World Press Photo Award and recognition as Multimedia Photographer of the Year at POYi.
His monograph REX won POYi Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture First PhotoBook Prize.
Zackary's documentary Fire in Paradise won an Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow Award and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. He received a second Emmy for directing The Gallagher Effect for The New York Times Presents (FX/Hulu).
In episode 277, Zackary discusses, among other things:
- How he started in photography
- The experience of cutting his photographic teeth in India
- The complicated question of whether it's a good time to be a filmmaker
- His early project California Is a place, with his collaborator Drea Cooper
- Learning the ropes through experience
- His first feature documentary, T-Rex, and being smiled upon by the documentary gods
- Flint Town
- Thoughts & Prayers
- Fire in Paradise
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276 - Jessica Dimmock
Jessica Dimmock’s work focusses on humanistic and intimate storytelling. She is the recipient of numerous international awards for her photography and video work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, three World …
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Jessica Dimmock’s work focusses on humanistic and intimate storytelling. She is the recipient of numerous international awards for her photography and video work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, three World Press Photo Awards for short films, The Inge Morath Award from Magnum, the F Award for Concerned Photography from Forma and Fabrica, The Infinity Award for Photojournalist of the Year from the International Center of Photography, and The Kodak Award for Best Cinematography at the Hamptons International Film Festival. She is a Sundance Edit and Story Lab Fellow, and her first feature film The Pearl was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Dallas International Film Festival and was executive produced by Impact Partners. Her clients include HBO, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Microsoft, The UNFPA, Aperture, Showtime and PBS. She is the co-director of the Netflix series Flint Town as and directed on the reboot of Unsolved Mysteries and AppleTV’s Home.
In 2007 Jessica produced a photobook entitled The Ninth Floor (Contrasto).
Her most recent film, co-directed with her partner Zackery Canepari, is Thoughts & Prayers: How to Survive an Active Shooter in America, focussing on the USA's $3 billion active shooter preparadness industry and its effects on teachers and students, released in 2025.
In episode 276, Jessica Discusses, among other things:
- Current projects
- Her attraction to dark subject matter
- Her TV mini series Captive Audience
- Forming close relationships with her subject
- The random coffee shop interaction that changed her direction forever
- The chance encounter that led to her first big photography project and subsequent book, The Ninth Floor
- How the musician Moby played a part in her journey
- Serendipity and her project The Pearl
- The challenge of landing lucrative commercial work
- The Netflix series she co-directed, Flint Town
- Her most recent film Thoughts & Prayers: How to Survive an Active Shooter in America
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275 - Philip Blenkinsop
On episode 275, Philip discusses, among other things:His ‘cabinet of curiosities’ studio spaceA recent, powerful urge to photograph in AustraliaWhy he left the newspaper world there in favour of ThailandHis …
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On episode 275, Philip discusses, among other things:
- His ‘cabinet of curiosities’ studio space
- A recent, powerful urge to photograph in Australia
- Why he left the newspaper world there in favour of Thailand
- His early project “The Cars That Ate Bangkok”
- His sense of anger at injustice
- His ‘near death experience’ on Sleeping Dog Mountain
- Process, shooting on film, and working close to the subject
- The influence of Koudelka’s book Exiles
- The ways in which his old home of Bangkok has changed since he was there
- Why he moved to France
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274 - Joachim Ladefoged
Joachim Ladefoged is a Danish photographer born in 1970. He has worked as a professional since 1991, and is a member of the international photo agency VII. Today he is a staff photographer at the Danish Daily …
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Joachim Ladefoged is a Danish photographer born in 1970. He has worked as a professional since 1991, and is a member of the international photo agency VII. Today he is a staff photographer at the Danish Daily Jyllands-Posten, but over the years he has worked regularly for magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, Mare, The New Yorker and TIME.
Joachim has received numerous awards for his work from institutions such as Visa D'Or, World Press Photo, POYi, Eissie, and Agfa, as well as Picture of the Year in Denmark. Over the years he has published 3 monographs, Albanians, Mirror and Time After My Time.
Joachim photographs everything with the same inventiveness and diligence, whether sports, war or commerce. His highly accomplished career has seen him master complex, violent news stories, commercial assignments, daily news, and rich, vibrant, and spectacular feature stories. Joachim is credited with being one of the driving forces behind the new wave of Danish photojournalism.
In episode 274, Joachim discusses, among other things:
- Having arthritis as a teenager and the impact it had on his life (good and bad)
- Starting his career as an intern at a local newspaper
- Moving on to ‘the best job in the world’ at national newspaper Politiken
- Winning the World Press Photo award
- Words of wisdom received from Magnum legend Constantine Manos
- Getting into Magnum… and being chucked out again
- Being part of ‘the new wave of Danish photojounalists’
- Why changing direction on becoming a father was “the right decision, but a hard decision”
- Why three photographers were just made redundant on his newspaper
- His approach to shooting and lighting portraits
- His book project Time After My Time
- Photographing his kids with the iPhone
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273 - Lee Shulman
Lee Shulman is a visual artist, filmmaker, and founder of The Anonymous Project, one of the most significant archives of vernacular color photography in existence. Since 2017, the project has amassed nearly one …
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Lee Shulman is a visual artist, filmmaker, and founder of The Anonymous Project, one of the most significant archives of vernacular color photography in existence. Since 2017, the project has amassed nearly one million Kodachrome slides from the 1940s to the early 2000s — intimate, everyday images that might have otherwise been lost to time. Through curation and transformation, Lee reanimates these personal photographs, weaving them into compelling narratives that explore memory, family, love, and cultural shifts across generations.
Lee’s career also extends into film direction, notably with his debut feature documentary, "I Am Martin Parr," released in 2025. This film chronicles a road trip with renowned photographer Martin Parr, revisiting iconic locations from his oeuvre. Shulman's prior collaboration with Parr on the "Déjà View" project, which paired Parr's distinctive photographs with images from The Anonymous Project, laid the groundwork for their working relationship. The documentary provides an affectionate portrayal of Parr's artistic process and enduring work ethic, further cementing Lee’s engagement with the broader discourse of photography.
Born in London in 1973, Lee lives and works in Paris. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale and Rencontres d’Arles, and is held in major collections such as the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and Photo Elysée in Lausanne.
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272 - Year In Review 2025
Featuring:Ed SykesIan HowarthDina LitovskyJoseph Michael LopezMike AbrahamsIan MacdonaldKatrin KoenningTomasz TomaszewskiMackenzie CalleMarc WilsonPaul SeawrightMohamed BourouissaAnna ArendtMarjolein …
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Featuring:
- Ed Sykes
- Ian Howarth
- Dina Litovsky
- Joseph Michael Lopez
- Mike Abrahams
- Ian Macdonald
- Katrin Koenning
- Tomasz Tomaszewski
- Mackenzie Calle
- Marc Wilson
- Paul Seawright
- Mohamed Bourouissa
- Anna Arendt
- Marjolein Martinot
- Rankin
- Tony Docekal
- Eli Reed
- Merlin Daleman
- Mike Brodie
- Paul Sng
- Ed Kashi
- Rachel Elizabeth Seed
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271 - Rachel Elizabeth Seed
Rachel Elizabeth Seed is a Brooklyn and Los Angeles-based nonfiction storyteller working in film, photography, and writing.In 2025, she won the Truer Than Fiction Spirit Award for her debut feature film, A …
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Rachel Elizabeth Seed is a Brooklyn and Los Angeles-based nonfiction storyteller working in film, photography, and writing.
In 2025, she won the Truer Than Fiction Spirit Award for her debut feature film, A Photographic Memory, which is also a New York Times Critics Pick.
Rachel’s work has received support from the Sundance Institute, Chicken + Egg Films, the Jewish Film Institute, the California Film Institute, Jewish Story Partners, NYFA, Field of Vision, the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, the Maine Media Workshops, the Roy W. Dean grant, the National Arts Club, IFP, and many others.
Formerly a photo editor at New York Magazine, her photography has been exhibited worldwide, including at the International Center of Photography, and she was a cameraperson on several award-winning feature documentaries. Rachel’s writing has been published by No Film School, the Sundance Institute, and Talkhouse and she is Executive Director / Co-founder of the Brooklyn Documentary Club, a NYC-based filmmaker collective with 250+ members.
In episode 271, Rachel discusses, among other things:
- A summary of her mum’s character
- nature vs. nurture
- Her mum’s Images of Man interviews for ICP/Scholastic
- What inspired her to make a film
- How her own story became interwined with her mum’s
- Discovering a family archive of super 8 footage
- How she recreated the interviews using actors
- The importance of working with good editors
- The challenge of funding and financing
- Key advice for anyone wanting to make a personal documentary
- The fine balance between collaboration and having the courage of your convitions as director
- Writing for narration as opposed to for reading
- Sharing her personal stories as the film evolved over a ten year period - How to balance life and art
- ‘Selling the film’ and what that means in practice
- The Brooklyn Documentary Club
- Moving to L.A.
- Projects she has in development
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270 - Paris Photo 2025 Special
Featuring:Yasuhiro OgawaMarshall ToLua RibeiraGianluca Gamberini (L'artiere books)Eleonora AgostiniPia-Paulina GuilmothAletheia CaseyBooks/Projects mentioned:Lost in Kyoto, Yasuhiro OgawaBlank Notes, Marshall …
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Featuring:
- Yasuhiro Ogawa
- Marshall To
- Lua Ribeira
- Gianluca Gamberini (L'artiere books)
- Eleonora Agostini
- Pia-Paulina Guilmoth
- Aletheia Casey
Books/Projects mentioned:
- Lost in Kyoto, Yasuhiro Ogawa
- Blank Notes, Marshall To
- 44 Irvine Street 1970-1971, Susan Meiselas
- Agony In The Garden, Lua Ribeira
- Calling The Bird Home, Cheryl St. Onge
- Another England, Phil Toledano
- A Study On Waitressing, Eleonora Agostini
- Flowers Drink The River, Pia Paulina Guilmoth
- Fishworm, Pia Paulina Guilmoth & Jesse B. Saffire
- A Lost Place, Aletheia Casey
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269 - Ed Kashi (#2)
Ed Kashi is a renowned photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker and educator who has been making images and telling stories for 40 years. His restless creativity has continually placed him at the forefront of new …
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Ed Kashi is a renowned photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker and educator who has been making images and telling stories for 40 years. His restless creativity has continually placed him at the forefront of new approaches to visual storytelling. Dedicated to documenting the social and political issues that define our times, a sensitive eye and an intimate and compassionate relationship to his subjects are signatures of his intense and unsparing work. As a member of VII Photo, Ed has been recognized for his complex imagery and its compelling rendering of the human condition.
Ed’s innovative approach to photography and filmmaking has produced a number of influential short films and earned recognition by the POYi Awards as 2015’s Multimedia Photographer of the Year. Ed’s embrace of technology has led to creative social media projects for clients including National Geographic, The New Yorker, and MSNBC. From implementing a unique approach to photography and filmmaking in his 2006 Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook, to paradigm shifting coverage of Hurricane Sandy for TIME in 2012, Ed continues to create compelling imagery and engage with the world in new ways.
Along with numerous awards from World Press Photo, POYi, CommArts and American Photography, Ed’s images have been published and exhibited worldwide. His editorial assignments and personal projects have generated fourteen books.
In 2002, Ed in partnership with his wife, writer + filmmaker Julie Winokur, founded Talking Eyes Media. The non-profit company has produced numerous award-winning short films, exhibits, books, and multimedia pieces that explore significant social issues.
In 2019, The Enigma Room, an immersive installation, premiered at NYC’s Photoville festival, and has since been seen in Israel, the Netherlands, South Korea, and New Mexico, USA.
HIs new book is, A Period In Time: Looking Back While Moving Forward, 1977 - 2022.
In episode 269, Ed discusses, among other things:
- Wanting to contribute to positive change
- Donating his archive and why
- A lesson learned on being assertive
- His new book A Period In Time
- Publishing extracts from his journal entries
- Editing language in response to modern sensibilities
- Seeing the impact of identity politics in the USA
- His book project with his wife, Julie, American Sketches
- America being less divided than we are being led to believe
- His interest in ‘advocacy journalism’
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268 - Paul Sng
Paul Sng is a bi-racial British Chinese filmmaker based in Edinburgh, Scotland whose work focuses on people who challenge the status quo. He has directed six feature documentaries, including Poly Styrene: I Am …
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Paul Sng is a bi-racial British Chinese filmmaker based in Edinburgh, Scotland whose work focuses on people who challenge the status quo. He has directed six feature documentaries, including Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliche (winner of BIFA 2021 Best Documentary, BIFA 2021 Raindance Discovery Award), Tish (Sheffield DocFest 2023 Opening Gala film) and Reality Is Not Enough (Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025 Closing Gala film). Paul strives to make bold and creatively ambitious films that connect emotionally with audiences, working collaboratively with great teams to tell stories about outsiders and amplify rebellious voices. In 2022 he was named as a BAFTA Breakthrough Artist and directed Folding, his first short drama film, funded by Screen Scotland and BFI Network.
In episode 268, Paul discusses, among other things:
- Growing up in London with a single mum
- Having outsider syndrome… and imposter syndrome, and using that to your advantage
- His educational history, including a couple of false starts
- Making a feature as his first ever film with the ‘confidence of ignorance’
- The importance of finding a good Producer (and what their job involves)
- The important questions he asks himself in considering whether to make a film
- Structure and working with an editor
- Applying the same narrative principles to documentary as are prevalent in fiction
- The creative treatment of actuality
- Finding an audience
- Currently in production, Little Warrior
Referenced:
- Trainspotting
- Symposium, Plato
- Bruce Lee
- Jackie Chan
- David Yip
- John Woo
- Wong Kar-Wai
- Colin McArthur
- Sleaford Mods
- Nathan Hannawin
- Bruce Robinson
- Orson Welles
- Rebecca Mark-Lawson
- Jennifer Corcoran
- Moonage Daydream
- The Atrocity Exhibition, JG Ballard
- The Man In The White Suit
- Emma Butt
Website | IMDB page | Instagram
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267 - BoP Festival 2025
Fearturing:Merlin DalemanDavid O’MaraJem SouthamMartin ParrChristoph Bangert from PhotobusAyesha JonesMark PowerTom Shaw Become a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only …
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Fearturing:
- Merlin Daleman
- David O’Mara
- Jem Southam
- Martin Parr
- Christoph Bangert from Photobus
- Ayesha Jones
- Mark Power
- Tom Shaw
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266 - Mike Brodie
Mike Brodie’s first monograph, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity was published by Twin Palms more than a decade ago in 2013, depicting his fellow rail-riders and drifters in a rebellious and wildfire pursuit of …
Shownotes
Mike Brodie’s first monograph, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity was published by Twin Palms more than a decade ago in 2013, depicting his fellow rail-riders and drifters in a rebellious and wildfire pursuit of adventure and freedom. “Brodie leapt into the life of picture-making as if he was the first to do it,” Danny Lyon wrote about the book in Aperture. Next came Tones of Dirt and Bone, a collection of earlier SX-70 pictures Brodie made when photography first led him to hopping freights, when he was known as “The Polaroid Kidd.” And then Brodie seemed to disappear from the art world as suddenly and mysteriously as he’d first appeared. Maybe his vanishing was another myth. Maybe it was just a necessary retreat. “I was divorcing myself from all that,” he says. “I was growing up. I was pursuing this other life.”
In Nashville he became a diesel mechanic. Fell in love. Moved across the country again. Got married. Bought land on the long dusty Winnemucca road Johnny Cash sang about. Started his own business. Built a house. Put down roots. And when that life exploded, the open road called again. Throughout almost all of it, his cameras were with him, and at last those pictures are coming to light.
If Michael Brodie’s first monograph was a cinematic dream, his latest, Failing, again published by Twin Palms in 2024, is the awakening and the reckoning, a raw, wounded, and searingly honest photographic diary of a decade marked by love and heartbreak, loss and grief — biblical in its scope, and in its search for truth and meaning. Here is the flip side of the American dream, seen from within; here is bearing close witness to the brutal chaos of addiction and death; here are front-seat encounters with hitchhikers and kindred wanderers on society’s edges, sustained by the ragtag community of the road. Failing often exists in darkness but is tuned to grace. Brodie’s eye stays forever open to the strange and fleeting beauty that exists in forgotten places — the open country and the lost horizons that sweep past dust-spattered windows in a spectral blur.
Mike worked on and features in a recently released hour long documentary eponymously entitled Slack, the nickname of his one time girlfriend, Mia Justice Smith, who sadly died of a drug overdose, and to whom the film is dedicated. The film, which is directed by Mike’s friend and collaborator Cyrill Lachauer., revisits the freighthopping years and delves into Mike's creative collaboration with Mia.
In episode 266, Mike discusses, among other things:
- The documentary he helped to make about his freighthopping years - Slack
- How train hopping and photography went hand in hand
- Romanticism vs. misery
- Train hopping as a performance
- Losing his girlfriend, Mia Justice Smith, to a drug overdose
- His attempt at a ‘normal’ life and how that impacts his creativity
- The success of A Period of Juvenile Prosperity and its downside
- How the title came about
- The darkness of the pictures in latest book, Failing
- Tussling with the question of exploitation and ethical responsibility
- Ambitions to make a feature film one day
- The ongoing push/pull of art v. home life
- The desire to photograph machines and ways of life and ways of working that are passing away
- Next steps in the USA - projects vs. photographing life
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265 - Merlin Daleman
Merlin Daleman (b.1977) is a British photographer who has spent most of his adult life living in the Netherlands. He attended South Devon College, Torquay, the University of Central England (now Birmingham City …
Shownotes
Merlin Daleman (b.1977) is a British photographer who has spent most of his adult life living in the Netherlands. He attended South Devon College, Torquay, the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University) in the UK, and graduated from The Royal College of Art in The Hague, the Netherlands. He works as a freelance documentary photographer for leading Dutch publications, including NRC Handelsblad, Dagblad Trouw, Financieel Dagblad, and De Groene Amsterdammer. He is the recipient of awards including the Silver Camera awards for Documentary Photography in the Netherlands in 2008 and 2010 and had received grants from the EU Journalism Foundation Grant and the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship. His debut photobook, Mutiny, published by GOST Books in August 2025, builds on his long-term projects, such as the new black lung epidemic in Kentucky, USA and exploring the lives of families separated by labour migration in Ukraine.
In episode 265 Merlin discusses, among other things:
- How the Mutiny project came about
- How he funded it and set about shooting it
- Some of the stories behind images in the book
- Black lung story in Appalachia
- How a major motorycle accident helped his photography
Become a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £4 per month.
Need a website? Or someone you know does? EXCLUSIVE LISTENER OFFER: 15% off when booked by Christmas 2026! Go here.
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.
Follow me on Instagram here.
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