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The Photowalk

Neale James

The Photowalk is a mailbag-driven podcast where we walk and make pictures together, and meet with special guests along the trail. For anyone who likes to take pictures. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

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30 episodes
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Avg 1 hr 33 min
English

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#552
Today · 1 hr 55 min
#552 THE MONGOLIAN ADVENTURE SPECIAL Pt.1
This week, we're taking you to Mongolia, travelling across the vast open steppe in Russian UAZ vans, meeting nomadic families, and discovering a way of life shaped by the land, the seasons, and the animals that depend on it. Along the way, you'll find traditional Mongolian hospitality, yoghurt vodka, ancient standing stones, wild horses, and a fair bit of bouncing around on roads that barely deserve the name. With our fellow adventurers and local guide Shuren, we explore ruined monasteries hidden in the mountains, hear extraordinary stories of Chinggis Khaan and visit places where Mongolia's remarkable history has left some painful reminders. Recorded as we travel, with the voices, laughter and experiences of the people alongside us, this is a Photowalk adventure through one of the world's most extraordinary landscapes. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
#551
October 9 · 1 hr 32 min
#551 The courage to be afraid
This week, my guest is Kim Frank, an American writer, editor, photographer, filmmaker and explorer who set off for The Himalaya in 2018, determined to find a story worthy of National Geographic, despite knowing very little about the region. She discovered a growing conflict between people and endangered Asian elephants. Ancient elephant migration routes now cross farms, villages and railway lines, with devastating consequences for both humans and elephants. Kim kept returning, documenting the lives of those caught up in the conflict and the efforts being made to help both species live alongside one another. Those journeys became her book, Elephants in the Hourglass, and the documentary Where the Forest Roars. We talk about the personal circumstances that first sent her travelling, the extraordinary encounters along the way, storytelling, photography and finding the courage to do things that frighten us. And Kim, despite everything she's achieved, admits she's frightened of almost everything. Also on the show, a curious case of mistaken location involving a library and a laundry room; Pascal Bernardon discovers photography and the wider world it opens up; Matt Goff talks about neurodiversity as a creative superpower; and Dreich McCrabbit downsizes his camera kit as winter approaches in Clashnessie. Plus, Ewen Bell shares a moment about travel, and Kim Frank returns with her own moment of wonder. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
#550
October 2 · 1 hr 32 min
#550 What have we become?
Marc Asnin joins me to talk about ACT 1: A Century in the Making, an ambitious book and exhibition looking at the first twenty-five years of this century through photography. More than 100 photographers, six continents, nine major themes and work by names including Eugene Richards, Platon, David Burnett and Albert Watson. We talk about what those photographs reveal about the first twenty-five years of this century, and what Marc discovered when he began looking at them together as a record of the times we've lived through. We also explore Marc's own documentary work. Uncle Charlie grew into an almost thirty-year portrait of his uncle and godfather, Charlie Henschke. Final Words collected the last statements of 578 people executed on death row in Texas, later developing into We the People Confess, bringing photography, sound, testimony and historical material together to examine capital punishment. In the mailbag, Matthies Wesche wonders whether making videos for YouTube is getting in the way of making still photographs. Lauren McClanahan writes about unplugging, younger people and AI, while Phil Ferris has been learning when it's time to shut doors. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE 1st AND 2nd EDITIONS OF OUR ZINE: REFLECTIONS
#549
September 25 · 1 hr 36 min
#549 "I admit my addiction! and..."
My guest today is documentary photographer Ed Kashi, who returns to The Photowalk. Across a career spanning more than four decades, Ed has photographed some of the most powerful and major social and political stories of our time. We talk about the power of mature storytelling eyes, returning to photographs made decades ago and seeing them differently, and what experience changes about the way you work. Then we turn to something photography is increasingly facing: trust. If AI can make a convincing photograph of an event that never happened, and even construct a believable photographic history around it, what happens to our belief in the photograph as evidence or reality? Ed has spent his working life documenting real people and real events, so I wanted to know how he sees what comes next, and far from a gloomy outlook, he has hope for the medium of photography for the decades to come. Also today, Rob Lee discovers ethnography after losing his enthusiasm for photography, David Higton finds a kitchen table with a story, Richard Rawlings goes looking for pools of light, and our growing collection of Moments recordings brings words on silence from Adriano Henney and beauty from Ewen Bell. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#548
September 18 · 1 hr 14 min
#548 "Photography is a powerful microphone!"
My mother kept an old biscuit tin in the larder. Inside this tin was the sort of collection that somehow accumulates over a lifetime: old coins, buttons, nuts and bolts, stamps that were no longer worth whatever was printed on them, keys that probably opened something once, and assorted little objects nobody could quite bring themselves to throw away. Years later, the idea of this tin, has found its way into The Photowalk. Mine, though, contains questions. This week, I open it with one of the show's great friends, David duChemin, an award-winning wildlife and humanitarian photographer, author, teacher and, for many photographers, a mentor. He tackles questions from the tin, and there are a couple of bigger questions I want to put to him this time about resilience and relevance. Where does resilience come from, and what keeps a creative person moving when confidence disappears, plans go wrong, or life simply gets in the way? Then there's relevance. As photographers, how much should we care about remaining relevant? Relevant to whom, exactly? And what happens as we get older, as the industry around us changes and our reasons for making photographs change with it? Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#547
September 11 · 1 hr 8 min
#547 Twenty-five years
Twenty-five years after September 11th, a generation has grown up knowing that day through photographs, television footage and the recollections of those who were there. In this special edition, I walk with my friend, photojournalist Jason Florio, who at the time of recording, was preparing to return to New York, where in 2001 he found himself running up Vesey Street as one of the towers fell behind him. We talk about going back, what remains clear after a quarter of a century, what has blurred, and the importance of first-hand memories as an event passes further into history. Also in the programme, filmmaker and photographer Paul Berriff recalls filming alongside New York firefighters when the South Tower collapsed, knocking him unconscious while his camera continued to record. Two photographers who witnessed an extraordinary moment in history, and the stories behind images that, twenty-five years later, remain with us. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
#546
September 4 · 1 hr 21 min
#546 Honesty, vulnerability and inspiration
There have been some extraordinary photographers walking with me on The Photowalk over the years, sharing their work, their lives, what they've learned and the reasons they continue to pick up a camera. But this programme has always belonged to you as well. Every week, photographs and stories arrive from around the world: places you've stumbled across, people you've met, pictures that have come to mean more than you expected, and walks taken because you simply needed to get out for a while. The Photowalk became as much about what happens while we're out there as the pictures we bring home. Photography gives us a reason to look, and walking gives us the time to notice. From there we find ourselves talking about creativity, friendship, family, loss, confidence, getting older, curiosity, mental health and all the other stuff that finds its way into life. I've always been more interested in why you pressed the shutter than which button you pressed to do it. Why you stopped. Why something caught your attention. Why you went out that morning with a camera in the first place. So today I'm handing the show over to you: your pictures, your letters, your walks and the things you've noticed along the way. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#545
August 28 · 1 hr 33 min
#545 Standing in the Cauldron of Passion
Passion is perhaps an overused word in photography and sport, but this week it earns its place within the show. German photographer and journalist Kai Behrmann joins me to talk about his long-term project exploring Argentina's extraordinary relationship with football and why the game runs so deep in the country's culture and identity. Valerie Jardin returns for this month's Teach Me Street, while the mailbag takes us to Finland with Juha Wikström, who has been photographing people completing one of the world's great pilgrimages. David Lloyd reports from Vapington-on-Sea, Giles Thurston writes with remarkable openness on Substack, and from Cornwall, there's reading under the covers by torchlight. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#544
August 21 · 1 hr 39 min
#544 Being resilient in a new world
Australian travel photographer Ewen Bell has spent more than 25 years making pictures across the world, from the Himalayas and the Australian Outback to the Arctic. But what remains after all those journeys and all those photographs? Ewen joins me to talk about the why of travel. We also talk about his ReIMAGINE podcast, writing, making zines, and the changing online world for photographers. From the mailbag, David Higton has his own story of airborne resilience; Richard Rawlings is writing in the mist; and, after our recent eclipse infatuation, David Glandon takes us back to the great American eclipse of 2017. Colin Mayer is kneeling before the altar of electricity pylons in pictures, plus moments of silence and wonder from Adriano Henney and Mali Davies. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#543
August 14 · 1 hr 16 min
#543 The day we chased the moon
Following this week's solar eclipse, which brought a partial eclipse to the UK, much of Europe and parts of North America, we return to The Photowalk archive for one of the most extraordinary stories ever told on the show. Photographer Jon Carmichael wanted to photograph a total solar eclipse from 39,000 feet aboard a commercial airliner. That meant calculating where the Moon's shadow would fall, finding a flight capable of meeting it, and somehow securing exactly the right seat. What followed is a remarkable story of planning, persuasion, good fortune and photography, beginning with the influence of a geography teacher and eventually leading to an image bought by Elton John. Even if you've heard Jon tell parts of this story elsewhere, including in his TED Talk, this is one worth pulling up an imaginary bar stool for and hearing again. It's a genuine dine-out-on-it-for-the-rest-of-your-life story about being in precisely the right place, several miles above the Earth, at precisely the right moment. Also today, from our Facebook community, Pascal Bernandon shares Shared Loneliness. Over in the mailbag, Per Birkhaug finds his photographic 'why' with a little help from three reindeer, while Gert Van Cole wonders why so many photographers stray into other creative pursuits. Plus, our new feature Moments officially begins, with next week's guest, travel photographer Ewen Bell. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#542
July 31 · 1 hr 25 min
#542 Discovering your why
What is your why? It seems like the simplest question, and it's one I ask every guest, yet it's almost always the one that reveals the most. Why? Not just why do you make photographs, but why do you create, why do you keep going, why does any of it matter? In this special edition of The Photowalk, I turn that same question towards the people who walk with me each week through the show, you! Alongside thoughtful messages from the mailbag, you'll hear audio archive reflections from past guests. This is a show about purpose as much as photography. About the reasons that shape our work, our choices and, sometimes, the direction of our lives. It might just leave you thinking about your own why. I'm joined by my good friend Giles Penfound for part of the walk, to talk about his own why, and his recent road trip across Australia. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#541
July 24 · 1 hr 27 min
#541 Stories from beside the road
We pass roadside memorials every day. A cross, a handful of fading flowers, a photograph weathered by the sun. Most of us glance at them for a moment before driving on. Photographer Miranda Remington did something different. She stopped. What began as a simple act of curiosity became a deeply personal project, introducing her to families who continue to care for these places of remembrance and sharing the stories behind them. In this conversation, we explore photography's unique ability to preserve memory, the trust required to tell someone else's story, and why some acts of love don't end with goodbye. It's a remarkable reminder that every memorial marks not just a loss, but a life that continues to be remembered. Plus, in the mailbag, Adam Flack and Mark Mackay reveal their dream portrait photographers, though one choice may require a time machine. Dan Langer finds himself inadvertently ruffling military feathers, Gordon Oliver shares a rabbit hole that completely hijacked my evening, and Mark Christensen has found the new collective noun for a 'gaggle' of photographers. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#540
July 17 · 1 hr 34 min
#540 The biggest street story in London
This week, The Photowalk explores the story of Notting Hill Carnival through the people who have lived it, photographed it and helped shape it over the decades. My lead guest is photographer Wayne Crichlow, co-author of Carnival of Resistance, a remarkable new book documenting Carnival through the eyes of those who know it best. Along the way, our conversation takes some unexpected turns. We meet London documentary photographer Sam Shervington, whose grandmother, Barbara, was there during Carnival's formative years, and Wilf Walker OBE, a music promoter whose story spans from the early days of Notting Hill Carnival to the fields of Glastonbury. Also today, we talk of Charlie Phillips, whose camera created one of the most important visual records of London's Caribbean community. We look back at the Mangrove Nine, discover the traditions behind J'ouvert and Jab Jab, and meet some of the people whose lives have become woven into the history of Carnival itself. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#539
July 10 · 1 hr 34 min
#539 "A life worth living"
This week, the conversation with Harry Borden moves beyond the portraits that made his name and into the ideas that continue to drive him. We talk about his "why", his growing YouTube channel and the deeply personal 4 Hugs Wide project. Harry also reflects on the detached retina that changed his outlook on life and speaks openly about a particularly difficult period, so just a gentle note that this part of the conversation touches on mental health. It's an honest, thoughtful and optimistic discussion with one of Britain's most respected portrait photographers. From the mailbag, we have some Hoptimism from Denmarkland too... and with an H. All will be revealed in a letter from Hegaard the Dane. If you don't believe in the power of a photograph, then Jim Farmer just might change your mind with today's opening letter. Chris Rawlings puts photography, AI and digital art into the same boxing ring with a question that's sure to divide opinion. We've got some biscuit tin answers to the question, "Which photographer, past or present, would you choose to make your portrait?" Valerie Jardin returns with this month's Teach Me Street, where she's very happily disappearing into a world of black and white, and the last letter of the show has a tortoise theme. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#538
July 3 · 1 hr 41 min
#538 Heard. Seen. Believed.
Harry Borden has spent more than four decades photographing some of the world's most recognisable faces. His portraits of actors, musicians, business leaders and every UK Prime Minister from Margaret Thatcher onwards have appeared in publications including The Observer, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Magazine and Vanity Fair. But behind those well-known portraits is a photographer equally drawn to quieter, more personal work. In the first of a two-week conversation, Harry joins me to talk about photographing celebrities, captains of industry, and Prime Ministers; how he approaches portraiture when the clock is ticking; and why curiosity has always mattered more than reputation. We also begin exploring some of the personal projects that have shaped his career, before next week's episode turns more towards the story of Harry himself. The mailbag is in particularly good form this week, too. Michael Assmann writes a thoughtful and moving letter about fatherhood, Paul Holdorf shares a photo essay on darkness. Sandro Correia wonders how to rediscover his love of photography. Paul Eaves pens an unexpectedly poetic tribute to his washing machine, we unveil a brand-new Biscuit Tin Question, bring the latest quarterly photo assignment to a close, and hand over the next challenge to none other than portrait photographer Platon. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. BUY THE NEW SHOW ZINE, REFLECTIONS
#537
June 26 · 1 hr 40 min
#537 A field full of stories: SPECIAL
What makes someone spend years restoring a traction engine, collecting children's bicycles, or keeping an old British car on the road when most of us would have given up long ago? This week, The Photowalk heads to the Dene Rally, where members of our community join me for a weekend of photography, conversation and a series of photographic challenges. We meet those who dedicate their lives to the magic of steam, there are family stories attached to classic cars, cowboys looking for new horizons in sleepy Hampshire, spooky fairground attractions, portraits with strangers and a story that proves the power of legacy negatives. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
#536
June 19 · 1 hr 47 min
#536 The Scottish Retreat Special 2026
This week, The Photowalk returns to the Scottish Highlands for a special show recorded during our latest 2026 retreat in Scotland. Together, we follow the Black Water as it gathers pace through the woodland gorge at Rogie Falls, find historic scenes in Cromarty, explore the wartime shoreline of Roseisle Beach, and spend time beside Loch Maree, one of Scotland's most celebrated lochs, where the mountain of Slioch rises directly from the water, just shouting for pictures to be made! Along the way, there are conversations about photography, friendship, creativity, large-format cameras, and the unexpected power of writing, not simply as a way of recording thoughts, but as a way of discovering them. Joined by Lynn Fraser, Michael Assmann, John Anderton and Giles Penfound, this journey takes you through a part of Scotland that has become deeply woven into the story of The Photowalk. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
#535
June 12 · 1 hr 24 min
#535 The art of absolute patience
This week, The Photowalk heads indoors to the Highland Print Studio in Inverness for an experience that's a world away from the instant gratification of modern photography. Over two days, we learn the centuries-old art of polymer photogravure, transforming digital photographs into richly textured fine art prints through a process of light, water, ink and an extraordinary amount of patience. Guided by master printmaker John McNaught, and joined by Lynn Fraser, Michael Assmann, John Anderton and Giles Penfound, we discover why so many photographers become captivated by this tactile craft. Along the way, we explore the history of photogravure, meet some of the artists who have embraced it, and find out why, in an age of endless scrolling, there is still something magical about slowing down and making a photograph you can truly hold in your hands. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available HERE.
#534
June 5 · 1 hr 8 min
#534 Two Scots, Two Stories
While I'm away in Scotland leading the Scotland 2026 retreat, I thought it would be fitting to bring you a special edition from The Photowalk archive. So, it's an interview-only special where I'm revisiting two conversations with Scottish photographers whose work has left a lasting impression on me, and whose careers have taken them in very different directions. Albert Watson was born in Edinburgh and has spent more than five decades producing some of the most recognisable photographs ever made. From portraits of actors, musicians and world leaders to fashion and commercial work, his images have appeared on countless magazine covers and gallery walls around the world. Kieran Dodds grew up in the Highlands and is known for thoughtful long-term documentary projects that explore people, place and identity. We revisit his fascinating Gingers project, which saw him travel the globe photographing red-haired people in countries where you might least expect to find them. Two photographers, two very different careers, and a chance to hear again from a pair of Scots whose work continues to inspire photographers around the world. The NEW Zine is launched: REFLECTIONS. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available HERE.
#533
May 29 · 1 hr 39 min
#533 Welcome aboard the TIME MACHINE
This week on The Photowalk podcast, I'm joined by photographer and collector Tim Rice, whose remarkable archive of cameras, lenses, film stocks and photographic memorabilia has become something of a museum dedicated to photography's past. From rare equipment to historically important oddities, we talk about the stories attached to the machines that once documented the world. Also returning to the show is independent curator and photography historian Hilary Roberts, former Head Curator of Photography at the Imperial War Museums, as we explore the idea of curation through photographs, archives, memory and history. In the mailbag, Phil Ferris writes from Oregon reflecting on place, stillness and impermanence before returning home to Cornwall, Don Ridgway follows the ancient stone circles of Britain and Tyler Cahoon shares thoughts from his Camino walk between Porto and Santiago, where photography became less about documenting others and more about understanding himself. There's also the return of The Photo Assignment, plus news about the launch of the very first Photowalk zine, REFLECTIONS. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available HERE.

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