FEATURING PHOTOGRAPHER AND DEAR FRIEND, GILES PENFOUND

What happens when you've already reached the heights of your profession, but find yourself searching for a new sense of purpose in something you've spent much of your life doing?

This week, I'm walking again with my dear friend Giles Penfound, a photographer who once worked at the very highest levels of his profession, documenting conflict and life in some of the world's most challenging and dangerous places, before his life and relationship with photography changed considerably. One moment he was making important legal documents with his camera, and the next, a ‘deafening’ quiet descended. What followed was more than a decade of trying to find his way creatively again, exploring large-format landscapes, printing, commercial photography, workshops, travel and wedding photography. But the more he searched for a new direction, the harder it seemed to become to reconnect with the very thing that had drawn him to photography in the first place.

Giles has now discovered being a photo tourist, an idea that has changed how he approaches photography and the world around him. It's about staying curious, finding interest in places we might otherwise overlook, not labelling yourself, being free to make photographs without feeling they have to belong together as part of a larger body of work or story, and approaching somewhere familiar with the same enthusiasm we'd bring to a country we've never visited. As we walk, we talk about ambition, reinvention, the expectations we place upon ourselves and what happens when the career that once defined us is no longer the whole story. And perhaps, after years of trying different doors, Giles has found one that feels worth opening.

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MORE ABOUT names, words, THE MUSIC and places FROM TODAY’S SHOW

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Join us in Venice for the Venice ‘26 retreat, photographing a city built on water, light, and ritual as winter settles across the lagoon. Together we’ll wander through early-morning markets, quiet canal edges, hidden monasteries, and the weathered backstreets of Castello and Cannaregio, with time to slow down, take photographs, and build creative confidence in a city that reveals itself gently when the crowds disappear. Places limited.

Beacon Hill is a chalk hill near Highclere, just south of the Berkshire border, with extensive views across the North Wessex Downs. At its summit are the remains of an Iron Age hillfort and the grave of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who helped finance Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. It's a popular walking spot, with a fairly steep climb to the top.

During the Victorian era, some families commissioned photographs of loved ones after they had died, sometimes posing them alongside living relatives for a final family portrait. Known as post-mortem photography, the practice became more common as photography grew affordable during the nineteenth century. For some families, particularly those who had lost a child, these photographs were the only images they would ever have of that person. They kept them as personal mementoes, and they became part of the Victorian approach to mourning and remembering the dead.

The Canon VI-H is a Japanese 35mm film rangefinder camera introduced in 1958, making it nearly 70 years old. Canon produced it toward the end of its rangefinder era, before the company focused on SLR cameras. It has interchangeable screw-mount lenses, a mechanical focal-plane shutter and a coupled rangefinder for focusing. The VI-H was relatively uncommon, with fewer produced than its sister camera, the Canon VI-L.

The show references the late Dennis Lee, with an episode made to celebrate his photographic life.

The Scottish Photowalk Retreat episode, recorded earlier this year, where Giles teaches Michael Assmann how to photograph using a large format camera.

Blue Peter is one of Britain's best-known children's television programmes, first broadcast by the BBC in October 1958. Famous for its presenters, ambitious challenges, creative projects and the much-coveted Blue Peter badge, the programme has introduced generations of young viewers to everything from wildlife and science to travel and current affairs. It's also the world's longest-running children's television programme.

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was an American poet who spent most of her life in Amherst, Massachusetts. She wrote nearly 1,800 poems, often exploring nature, death, love and the workings of the human mind. Very few were published during her lifetime, and it was only after her death that her remarkable body of work began to reach a wider audience. Today, she's regarded as one of America's most influential poets.

MUSIC LINKS: The playout song today is For the rest of my life, by Beò and North. Music on the show is sourced primarily from Artlist and also features in Michael Brennan’s Spotify playlist GoFoto. For Apple Music users, follow this playlist.

Kelvin Brown’s flickr Photowalk inspired group - join by invite by clicking on to THIS LINK.