The Photowalk

This week's guest is Paul Mobley, one of America's most accomplished portrait photographers, a man who has spent his career looking people in the eye to tell their stories through photography. He trained under Annie Leibovitz in New York, went on to shoot for some of the biggest names in advertising and editorial, and has pointed his lens at everyone from Adam Sandler and Daniel Radcliffe to Amy Schumer and Bill Burr, as well as major brands like Apple, Ford and American Express. But it's his personal work that sets him apart. Paul has spent years driving across the United States, well over 100,000 miles of it, making four books that document ordinary Americans living lives most people never stop to notice. Farmers, firefighters, everyday heroes, and centenarians in all fifty states who've lived through world wars, the space age and the digital revolution and still have something to say. He shares stories about how he puts sitters at ease, plus a tale where it could have all gone wrong with Mike Tyson, until a pigeon showed up. Also, in the mailbag as we walk, between my chat with Paul, you are about to be introduced today by Phil Ferris to an Australian urban poet who is the gem in my life I didn't know I needed, but now I've found him, I need to share his name with you. Wallace Shackleton shares his memory of the Camino by bike, a slight warning for reasons that will become clear; Richard Rawlings' letter is most likely to make you itch, and we check in with Raja Bhagavatula, who has found his own magical place on earth, in Scotland, next to an oil rig. 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.

This week's guest is Ruth Guest, a photographer and cyberpsychologist who's spent a lot of time thinking about what's really going on when we make pictures in a world that never seems to stop producing them. We explore the topics of losing your spark with photography, the pressure of everything we see online, and what happens when you start copying others without even realising it. It's less about cameras and more about what's happening in your head when you pick one up. We also touch on why we shoot in the first place, whether it's for work, for memory, or just to hold on to something that matters, plus what changes once those images are shared with the world. If you've ever questioned your own reasons for taking pictures or felt a bit lost in all the noise, this is an episode for you. In the mailbag this week, Jeff Smeraldo writes in about photographing family and why it matters more than we often realise, especially when it comes to legacy. Hegaard the Dane is stepping into what he calls a "proper grown-up job," which somehow leads us to news of a brand-new meet-up. Dennis Linden introduces a YouTuber who came to photography later in life, someone who didn't follow the usual path, and the photo assignment returns, set by photographer and artist Gael Hillyard. 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.

India is not a country that eases you in gently. It doesn't really do gentle. It's a place of somewhere between 1.4 and 1.5 billion people, the most populous nation on earth, having overtaken China in 2023, and it carries that scale in everything: the noise, the colour, the traffic, the sheer press of human life happening all around you at once. It is the world's largest democracy, has a space programme, a film industry that dwarfs Hollywood, and somewhere in excess of twenty official languages. It's not a country so much as a civilisation that happens to have borders around it. In this special, we go to two cities. Kolkata, in the east, formerly Calcutta, and Varanasi, on the Ganges, which may well be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and which confronts you, very directly, with questions about life and death that most of us spend considerable energy avoiding. Into all of this walked eight photographers, Anne, Bill, Fraser, Lloyd, Mercedes, Nicola, Owen and Peter, along with my travelling partner, in The Journey Beyond Lynn Fraser, and our Indian mentors and guides: Shivam, Shubh, Mohit and Arvind. What you're about to hear is an India special edition of the Photowalk Podcast, and honestly, as you'll hear, it affected us in ways we weren't expecting. It's a long episode, and for that I make no apology… but I hope that, with the music, the characters, the surprises, and the scenes described, you will feel you have photowalked there 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. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

After a handful of specials, four weeks away from the studio, and a journey that took me from Austria to Bangladesh and on into India, it feels a little overdue, and very welcome, to make this a mailbag week, walking one of my favourite photowalk paths with camera and Sir Barkalot, spending a good hour and a bit with the letters you've been sending in, some contemplative music, the wind doing its thing along the path, and the welcome return of Valerie Jardin, our street photography mentor, fresh from her own travels in Mexico, for TEACH ME STREET. Letters and stories today from Martyn Cox, who wonders if exotic places and travel lead to making better photographs, Paul Morgan has some thoughts on Bangladesh and her workforce, Andreas Noeh shares a super project from New York where loft life rules for artists, Jon Otis has me diving for cover behind the sofa of flattery, Dennis Linden is researching family history and creating his own, Tom Cavness practices Haiku, and Monika Adler finds profound beauty and peace with her photography and a famous English backdrop. 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.

Today, the show travels to Bangladesh. It's the first of two specials, as we visit India too in the coming weeks. Bangladesh is roughly the size of England, with a population of between 170 and 200 million people. Dhaka is one of the busiest, loudest, most relentlessly alive cities you are ever likely to walk through. The city runs on noise, an orchestra of car, bus, rickshaw and tuk-tuk horns and beeps that never quite stops, layers of sound that, after a while, start to feel almost normal. We walk the riverbanks of the Buriganga, explore the shipyards of Keraniganj, lose ourselves in the markets of Old Dhaka, and find ourselves unexpectedly invited through a wall into a Krishna festival in full swing. Along the way, we photograph the sand carriers of the river and spend time in a city that rewards anyone willing to look past the surface. Into all of this walked my travel partner, Lynn Fraser, and I, with cameras and the great fortune of having GMB Akash as our guide, a World Press Photo winner who has spent his career photographing lives on the margins in a way that gives people back their dignity rather than reducing them to their hardships. This isn't a formal interview with him, more time spent together in his city, with his people. You'll get a very clear sense of who he is. We certainly did. 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.

David duChemin is back for his third visit, and this time we're tackling a surprising topic: the enduring power of photography blogs. In an age of algorithms and fleeting posts, David makes a compelling case that blogs aren't dead and are thriving as vital spaces for deeper storytelling and better connection with your audience. Through a curated collection of photography blogs, we explore why long-form content and owning your platform matter more than ever, whether you're shooting for clients or purely for the love of it. David is a photographer and author based on Vancouver Island, Canada. A former humanitarian photographer, his work shifted after a life-altering accident in Italy in 2011 left him a below-the-knee amputee. We also talk about his adventures in Kenya. Join David in this special to discover why the blog remains one of photography's most powerful tools. 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.

David Wright returns from Antarctica with the story he promised to share with us at the start of the year. He talks of the deep stillness he encountered on his expedition as a guide, and the practicalities of photographing this vast beautiful land and seascape. David is known worldwide as an award-winning filmmaker and photographer who has worked in more than seventy countries for clients including National Geographic and the BBC. His path has gradually moved toward personal projects, and this Antarctic voyage is a part of that chapter, where the focus is on seeing slowly, working with isolation and weather, and translating one of the planet's most remote places into images. 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.

In this second part, former professional documentary photographer Giles Penfound and I are back at Penwood in Berkshire, England, to make one special single picture using 5x4, paying homage to the late Dennis Lee, an American community member who passed at the start of 2026. In this episode, you get to see what all of that waiting, all of that patience, actually produced. We reveal the finished photograph: the large-format portrait of a remarkable tree. We also pick up the conversation where we left it, talking more about what happens when you deliberately take your foot off the accelerator, not just as a photographer, but as a person moving through the world. Giles came from documentary work, where speed and instant story were everything, and watching him operate with a 5x4 plate camera in a quiet wood in Berkshire is about as far from that as you can get. 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.

Sometimes the most profound photographs aren't made in an instant, they're cultivated over days, even weeks. In this special two-part episode, I walk with photographer Giles Penfound in Penwood in Berkshire, as he slows down to make a single large-format image of a giant tree, a portrait created in honour of a photographer known to us both. Working with a 5x4 plate camera, Giles has transformed his practice from the fast-paced world of documentary work to something more deliberate, contemplative, and rooted in presence. Across two weeks, we explore what it means to truly slow down: waiting for light, sitting with a 'subject', and navigating the mental space that opens up when you're no longer chasing the next frame. We discuss mental health, the quality of light, and choosing a different pace of life in a world that demands speed. This is photography as meditation, as ritual, as a way of being fully present with the world. 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.

This week, I speak with Gary Williams, a professional singer who's performed at Buckingham Palace and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, where the late Martin Parr once photographed him. Over the last two years, Gary has built a thriving business photographing micro weddings at London's iconic town halls, the same venues where Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Lily Allen, and Ed Sheeran have tied the knot. We discuss reaching his photographic milestone of 100 weddings in just two years, the process of building a practice as a newcomer to professional photography, and what he's learned along the way. It's 100 not out. Then Valérie Jardin returns for her monthly Teach Me Street segment, where she offers creative feedback on candid street photos submitted by two photographers, examining the decisions made and the stories behind the images. From the mailbag, Sven in Switzerland is trying to lose the imposter syndrome character on his shoulder, Gene Westberg wonders if he missed a photographic trick during the pandemic, Jussi Jääskeläinen takes us on a hike in North Eastern France, Adriano Henney shares what he loves about Venice, and there's a moment of Spike Milligan silliness, or at least an ode to him, from the Doctor of Reflection, Robin Chun. Plus, news about some very special editions coming in the next four weeks. 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.

This week, Steven Seidenberg is my guest, a photographer, philosopher, and writer whose work focuses on empty spaces, ordinary places, and the things most people pass by. His photographic books include The Architecture of Silence and Pipevalve: Berlin, and his work has been shown internationally, from Europe to the US and Japan. Alongside the photographs, he writes prose and poetry that explore similar themes, examining perception and what it means to truly notice what's in front of us. It's certainly one of our more thought-provoking conversations of late, as Steven even questions what a photograph actually is, if it's not a printed, tangible, tactile thing. From the mailbag, Andrew Larking writes about self-criticism, sharing a story that touches on depression and the instinct many of us have to try to push through it alone; Richard Rawlings writes about neurodiversity, and Jim Farmer reports on unexpected wildlife encounters that may or may not involve actual alligators a little too close to home! Also today, a chance to join in with a new community feature for 2026 called HERE AND THERE. 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.

This week, I speak with Cathal McNaughton, a well-respected international photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winner. We discuss his biographical film I Dream in Photos, his recent photography in Ukraine that focuses on ordinary life continuing alongside the war brought to their country, and the role family plays in shaping how and why he photographs. Along the way, Cathal shares a personal discovery that has refocused attention on him, after a career spent observing others. It becomes a conversation about self-understanding and what it means to keep making photographs when the relationship with the camera itself is being questioned. From the mailbag, Richard Rawlings pairs photographs with prose as walking helps him appreciate nature, Marilyn Davies nudges anyone still circling a 365 feature, to just start, even if February becomes the starting line, and Jaki G heads celebrates Lisbon's street photo festival, and walking with the celebrated Phil Penman who swapped his adopted New York for the Portuguese capital. 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.

This week, I talk with Craig Easton, and the conversation embraces AI, trust in photojournalism, and how a still photograph can still hold its own. But the heart of this chat sits on a Scottish island. Picture a house at the end of a single-track road, miles from anywhere, no shop, no pub, just weather, water, and time. This is Barnhill, on the Isle of Jura, where George Orwell came to live and work while writing Nineteen Eighty-Four. Craig travelled to this fabled place to make his new book 'An Extremely Un-Get-Atable Place'. This is a conversation about place, curiosity, and paying attention. On today's walk from the mailbag, Jade Lee discovers just how powerful it can be to swap pictures with people in other countries, Jean-Maurice Cormier shares some thoughts on travel and street photography, and Phil Ferris appears to be listening from the shower in what may or may not become a formal complaint, all while we pack coffee, biscuits, film, and a copy of 1984 into our camera bags. 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.

Strangers When We Meet is a street portrait project built as much on conversation as photography. In it, Tim Allen approaches people he has never met, talks with them, and then makes their portrait. Beneath that simple exchange sits a longer story about family influence and a decision to move his life to the town where he now photographs its people. The family thread isn't about cameras being passed down, but about a father who could talk to anyone, and how that way of meeting the world found its way into the work. We talk about Tim's book, Strangers When We Meet, published to raise funds for St Michael's Hospice, and his return to Artisans, a project documenting people who make things for a living. From the mailbag: Glenn Sowerby has been making street pictures at big-city football matches. Chris Hughes reckons he may already have made his one big picture for 2026, just days into the year, and Jeff Smeraldo is deep into proper family photographic history. Also today Valérie Jardin returns for the first of our monthly TEACH ME STREET features and she shares news about We are Minnesota, plus there's an invitation to come to Scotland in 2026 and further afield to India, Mongolia and Venice. 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.

Late last Autumn, I asked you to send me one photograph you made in 2025. Not a greatest hit and not something that had done well online, just the one you kept coming back to when nobody else was watching. The one you might show a friend and say, "Yeah, this really means something." What arrived was more than I expected. Over a hundred pictures came in, each with a story attached, some short, some long, some so open it made me pause. The level of trust that this show evokes never feels normal, and this project really brought that home. THE ONE was never meant to be a competition. There was no ranking, no winners, no pecking order. The pictures we talk about are simply the ones that made me stop, sometimes because of the image, sometimes because of the story that sat behind it. I invited 10 photographers over two weeks to talk about their work, and this is the second of those two special editions. If your picture isn't included in these two episodes, it doesn't mean it was missed. This grew bigger than anyone expected, and THE ONE now has a home on the website, ready to be returned to throughout the year. John Lancaster talks about a health scare that pushed him to look at both life and photography differently. Wendy Brandon takes us out onto the water, finding calm among whales and ice. Jan van der Hooft shares a deeply personal story of love, loss, and what it means to keep making pictures. Michael Tenbrink brings his blurred, dreamlike landscapes into the mix, while Gene Westberg reminds us that some of the best images happen when you wander off the main path. 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.

Before Christmas, I asked you to send me one photograph from 2025. Not necessarily what you consider to be your best, not your most liked, and not something measured against anyone else in either competition or social media terms. Just the picture that said to you, "This was my 2025." The one you kept coming back to. My plan was to invite ten photographers to the first episode of 2026 to talk about their pictures and the why behind them. Over a hundred arrived, each with a story attached, and it quickly became clear that with the compelling stories you sent in, we'd need to spread this across two editions, and so that is where we are. As I spoke to the people behind these pictures, the conversations opened out into how we see, why we photograph, and what was going on in life when the shutter was pressed. This episode is the first half of those conversations. Unrushed, unscripted, and simply photographers talking about images that meant something to them, and by extension, saying a little about themselves. David Wright reflects on serenity in photography through an image that feels like an emotional time capsule. John Charlton talks about a Northern Lights photograph whose meaning runs far deeper than the light in the sky. Wayne Richards joins me on the path to talk about a rag tied to a railing that all but demanded to be photographed. Kim Cofield shares thoughtful advice drawn from her experience of making animal portraits, and Mark Creamer looks back on a photograph made in the middle of a disaster zone. 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.

Today's guest is Phil Sharp, a portrait photographer whose work has been on my radar for a while, and who was brought back into focus for me through a couple of prompts and a short film made by Sean Tucker. Phil's approach is considered, patient and personal. He creates a setting where people are given time, often during longer sessions in his London studio, to settle rather than perform. Music often plays a part in that process, helping to establish a mood that is very evident throughout his portfolio. This conversation isn't about cameras or lighting setups. It's about how you create the conditions for someone to feel comfortable enough to show whatever emotion arrives, whether that's openness, uncertainty, or anything in between. It's about trust, presence, and what can happen when a photographer is willing to slow things down, away from the watchful eyes of publicists in the corner of the room. If you're interested in portrait photography, there's plenty here. But if you're interested in how time, attention, and thoughtfulness affect the way people appear in photographs, a human approach, I think you'll find a lot to sit with in this one. From the mailbag, Phil Ferris clears up a curious fascination with bottoms, and no, it's not quite what it sounds like. There's a long service award for Morris Haggerty, a sunnier than usual update from Jack Antal in San Diego with a nudge towards making books, and Per Birkhaug checks in from the Norwegian mountains with a few thoughts about age and perspective. There are some thoughts about the end of the year as we look ahead to the show in 2026, and an invitation to come to Scotland in 2026 as we meditate a little in the middle of today's edition. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

REFLECTIONS is a short-form feature within The Photowalk podcast, offering thoughtful observations on a creative life and the themes that we often discuss on Fridays, including perfectionism, impostor syndrome, comparison, confidence, and more. It's a pause at the start of the week to recalibrate, recorded in the studio between the walks. Each Monday, you'll find Reflections on The Photowalk podcast feed, providing a creative reset to start the week. From Tuesday to Friday, it continues exclusively on our member-supported channel, The Extra Mile, for those who walk a little further with us. From Terry Wogan to "my five-year-old could do that," a bemused look at how creatives are spoken to, and spoken over. My sincere thanks to Arthelper, who sponsor this show, plus our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

Robert Gumpert joins me on the show from San Francisco, where he's spent decades photographing the parts of life most of us never see unless we work there, live there, or get pulled into the system. Hiring halls on the docks and the interview rooms inside the county jails have all been part of his working world. His long-running project Take a Picture / Tell a Story was the one that initially caught my attention: a portrait made after a recorded conversation with someone in custody, giving a literal voice to people awaiting trial. We also talk about his photographs of mariners heading out to sea, and his book Division Street, published by Dewi Lewis. That work looks at life under the flyovers and in the city's corners, where people without a home live just two blocks from some of the wealthiest startup companies on earth. Alongside my conversation with Robert, Gene Westburg is back from last week with a follow-up question about street v travel photography. Fred Ash also returns, and Michael Brennan has posted something that will, I'm sure, spark a few ideas for anyone thinking about bringing their work to life in print. There are some thoughts about THE ONE feature and an invite to come to Scotland in 2026. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

REFLECTIONS is a short-form feature within The Photowalk podcast, offering thoughtful observations on a creative life and the themes that we often discuss on Fridays, including perfectionism, impostor syndrome, comparison, confidence, and more. It's a pause at the start of the week to recalibrate, recorded in the studio between the walks. Each Monday, you'll find Reflections on The Photowalk podcast feed, providing a creative reset to start the week. From Tuesday to Friday, it continues exclusively on our member-supported channel, The Extra Mile, for those who walk a little further with us. Today, a reflection on Martin Parr's life, his eye for the everyday, and the legacy he leaves in British documentary photography. Also see Charlotte Jansen's obituary in The Guardian. My sincere thanks to Arthelper, who sponsor this show, plus our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.