Episodes
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Anna Arendt is a photographer and visual artist living and working in Berlin whose images explore memory, silence, loss, and the invisible links between personal history and larger events. Her work often moves between personal, historical, and symbolic worlds, shot in black-and-white to capture places where the past and present meet.
Anna was born in the German Democratic Republic and was 24 when The Wall fell, at which time her daughter was two. Her parents were born 1940 in Germany, children of war. Both of her grandfathers had been soldiers, who had been in Poland between 1940 and 1942. One came back 2 years after the war was over, the other one never returned.
As a child Anna found a secret shelf that contained photo albums of her family. "It is where I discovered the power of a picture. A picture taken in summer 1940. A young family, my grandmother, her baby and my grandfather in a German uniform. A picture full of contradictions, carrying ambivalent feelings even today."
Anna graduated with a degree in Fine Arts and Set Design and then received a one-year grant from the DAAD to study photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. For 15 years, she worked as a set and costume designer for opera, drama, and puppet theater, collaborating with directors at theaters across Germany and Switzerland.
Anna recently published her first book, Vanishing, with Charcoal Press. Photographed mostly between Germany and Poland over 15 years, the work slides back and forth through time like a blood memory. Walking naked through the dark forest, wolves circling, howling. A daughter becoming a mother becoming a grandmother becoming a child. Haunted villages, and souls in jeopardy. The harsh reality of the past merges seamlessly with moments of rapture that feel plucked from a Grimm fairy tale.
Photography has now become the center of Anna’s creative life. She continues to develop long-term projects that reflect her search for meaning in places marked by beauty, pain, and the mysteries of time. Alongside her artistic work, she also works with disabled people in an art workshop, sharing the joy of creative expression.
In episode 260, Anna discusses, among other things:
The origins of her photographyGrowing up in East GermanyBeginning to understand her family historyThe fall of the Berlin wall in 1989Being ‘connected to pictures’The importance of visiting Poland and its significance for her familyThe cast of characters in the book, including wolves…….And her friend, who sadly diedAllowing the photograph to tell her what it wants to be (and where)How Charcoal Press came to publish the bookHer collaboration with publisher Jesse LenzHaving a day job and a change of identityWhat she’s currently up to in the darkroomEPISODE SPONSORS:
CHARCOAL WORKSHOPS.
THE ‘SUMMER SERIES’ TAKING PLACE IN PORTLAND, MAINE, SEPTEMBER 15-19, 2025.
FEATURING: ANTOINE D’AGATA, TODD HIDO AND CHRISTIAN PATERSON. SIGN UP AT THE LINK!PICDROP
THE EASIEST WAY TO SHARE PHOTO AND VIDEO SHOOTS. CREATE HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL PHOTO GALLERIES IN SECONDS AND LET YOUR CLIENTS DOWNLOAD, SELECT AND COMMENT ON THEIR FAVOURITE SHOTS. SIGN UP WITH THE CODE “ASMALLVOICE” FOR A TWO-MONTH FREE TRIAL!Become a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £5 per month.
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Mohamed Bourouissa is an Algerian-born French artist (b. 1978) who lives and works in Paris. Mohamed's practice moves between photography, video, sculpture, and installation, often blurring the lines between these mediums. His work explores social issues, power dynamics, and the representation of marginalized communities.
He often engages with or embeds himself into specific communities for extended periods, spending significant time with individuals and groups to understand their experiences and perspectives before then creating collaborative works that challenge societal structures and explore the complexities of identity.
Mohamed's work frequently addresses the tensions between different social contexts, particularly those related to race, class, and immigration, often questioning how different social groups are represented in media and art, challenging stereotypes and seeking to offer alternative narratives.
His work has been exhibited in major museums and biennials worldwide, and in 2020 he received the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize for his retrospective exhibition featured in the Arles Festival the previous year.
Mohamed currently has a major solo show at Fondazione MAST in Bologna Italy, curated by Francesco Zanot. The exhibition is entitled Communautés and features four notable works produced over a twenty year span between 2005 and this year - Péripherique, Horse Day, Shoplifters and Hands.
In episode 259, Mohamed discusses, among other things:
The sense of community growing up in the Parisian suburbsHis early experiences as a graffiti artistHis first project, Nous Somme HallesThe 2005 riots that preceded PéripheriqueWhy he decided to stage images… and why he sketches the images out firstThe theme of masculinity and his own experience of growing up without a father presentThe challenges of being a dadKnowing that he wanted to be an artistHow artists must value their own work and learn to say noHis project Horse Day and how it came aboutArt as a playgroundHis new project, HandsHow he arrives at the choice of medium and the factors that inflence that choiceWhy he is, in his own words, an ‘extremely bad photographer’Referenced:
AnoushkashootJamel ShabazzEmma-Charlotte GobryFletcher Street by Martha CamarilloWebsite | Instagram
EPISODE SPONSORS:
CHARCOAL WORKSHOPS.
THE ‘SUMMER SERIES’ TAKING PLACE IN PORTLAND, MAINE, SEPTEMBER 15-19, 2025.
FEATURING: ANTOINE D’AGATA, TODD HIDO AND CHRISTIAN PATERSON. SIGN UP AT THE LINK!PICDROP
THE EASIEST WAY TO SHARE PHOTO AND VIDEO SHOOTS. CREATE HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL PHOTO GALLERIES IN SECONDS AND LET YOUR CLIENTS DOWNLOAD, SELECT AND COMMENT ON THEIR FAVOURITE SHOTS. SIGN UP WITH THE CODE “ASMALLVOICE” FOR A TWO-MONTH FREE TRIAL!Become a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £5 per month.
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Paul Seawright is Professor of Photography and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. His photographic work is held in many museum collections including The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Tate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, International Centre of Photography New York, Arts Councils of Ireland, England and N.Ireland, UK Government Collection and the Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. In 2002 he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum London to undertake a war art commission in Afghanistan and his photographs of battle-sites and minefields have subsequently been exhibited in North America, Canada, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Korea, Japan and China. In 2003 he represented Wales at the Venice Biennale of Art and in 1997 won the Irish Museum of Modern Art/Glen Dimplex Prize. He is represented by the Kerlin Gallery Dublin.
Paul was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to higher education and the arts.
In episode 258, Paul discusses, among other things:
The influence of studying at Farnham..and Martin Parr……And being at NewportNot taking a position‘Allusive documentary’The danger of losing the meaningThe ethical considerations of working on foreign soilThe essential business of researchHow do you find your next project?His USA projects Volunteer and Things Left UnsaidThe importance of titlesHis work from Rwanda, Beasts of BurdenReferenced:
Thomas Joshua CooperAnna Fox (Ep. 166)Ken Grant (Ep. 128)Chris ShawMartin Parr (Eps. 91 & 197)Peter Fraser (Ep. 172)Paul Graham (Ep. 149)Jem Southam (Ep. 174)Chris Killip (Ep. 94)Victor BurginAnne WilliamsNewportDaniel Meadows (Ep. 116)Clive LandenIvor Prickett (Ep.204)Anastasia Taylor Lind (Ep.68)Rich GilliganJames MollisonPaul VirilloParr and BadgerRobert Adams, The New WestIan Walker, Desert Stories, or Faith In FactsBaudrillardCalvino, Invisible CitiesGilles Peress The SilenceAlfredo JaarFergal KeaneBrian KeenanWebsite | Instagram
EPISODE SPONSOR: CHARCOAL WORKSHOPS.
THE ‘SUMMER SERIES’ TAKING PLACE IN PORTLAND, MAINE, SEPTEMBER 15-19, 2025.
FEATURING: ANTOINE D’AGATA, TODD HIDO AND CHRISTIAN PATERSON. SIGN UP AT THE LINK!“‘Allusive documentary’ is probably a good way to think about it. For me, it’s really about - and this is the bit that goes back to my experience of photography in Northern Ireland, which was all about dramacentric imagery - how you can make photographs that have a documentary subject (that might be the closest I come to being a documentarian, that I work with the subject of documentary photography) but with the methodology of an artist. That’s kind of the way I like to frame it, and I think that follows through to the work which is nearly always conceived for the gallery wall.”
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Featuring:
Francis HodgesonMaria SukkarSophie ParkerAmi BouhassaneTom HunterSilvana Trevale (but not Gabriel Pinto).Zed NelsonFeatured in the Positions exhibition:
Adam Rouhana (@adam.rouhana), Aikaterini Gegisian (@aikaterini_gegisian), Babak Kazemi (@babakkazemi1), Bibi Manavi (@bibimanavi), Ippolita Paolucci (@ippolitapaolucci), Kalpesh Lathigra (@kalpeshlathigra), Karim El Hayawan (@karimelhayawan), Mieke Douglas (@miekedouglas) and Roberto Conde (@robconde33)
Photo London Website | Instagram
Peckham24/A Bigger Book Fair Website | InstagramBecome a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £5 per month.
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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
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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 TVReferenced:
Sally RideFrancis FrenchBillie Jean KingChristina De MiddelErika LarsonWebsite | 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…”
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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 JarrettWebsite | 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.”
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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 RiverdaleReferenced:
Photo KatmanduChobi MelaRMITNational Gallery of VictoriaWebsite | 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?”
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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 collegeReferenced:
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.”
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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.”
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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 forwardReferenced:
Bruce WeberDanny Lyon, Knave of HeartsTod PapageorgeChuck Kelton’s darkroomMitch EpsteinThomas RomaMohammad RasoulofWebsite | 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, emphatic way to perceive things. I think to a certain extent what we see is who we are in a way.”
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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.”
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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.
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
In episode 248, Ian discusses, among other things: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.”
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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 processReferenced:
Brian HarrisKalpesh LathigraJames NachtwheyPaul LoweChris Steele PerkinsDelilah SykesRodrigo ArantiaWebsite | 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.”
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Featuring:
Richard KalvarNatalie KeyssarLorenzo CastoreEdward BurtynskyMitch EpsteinNicole TungLinda TroellerValerie BelinMichael AckermanJulia KochetovaChloé JaféDebi CornwallLouis QuailAbdul KircherDiana MatarKiana HayeriRobbie LawrenceAgnieszka SosnowskaPolly BradenStephan VanfleterenBecome a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £5 per month.
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Featuring:
Bieke DepoorterJesse LenzLucas FogliaSergio PurtellRichard SharumMark McLennanAlex WebbRebecca-Norris WebbMichal IwanowskiDragana JurisicLisa BarlowToma GerzhaGregory HalpernMark SteinmetzMaxime RichéWebsite | Instagram
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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.
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 noir
In episode 244, Stephan discusses, among other things:Referenced:
SebastiãoSalgadoJames NachtweyGilles PeressRobert HuberWebsite | 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.”
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Featuring:
Javier Hirschfeld MorenoFrancesco ZizolaMelissa SchriekChilli PowerSelf Publishers UnitedBryan SchutmaatTiffany JonesAtong AtemWebsite | Instagram
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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 SextonWebsite | 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.”
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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 farm
in 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.”
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