FEATURING documentary photographer john dolan

My guest, John Dolan, understands and completely embraces the importance of the photographic moment over photographic perfection. The second edition of his best-selling monograph, The Perfect Imperfect, is about to be released, and in it, he invites photographers to look beyond the shot list and find beauty and truth in imperfect moments. He has photographed the most recent Whitehouse Wedding; he is Seinfeld's family documentarian, and he is trusted to record the most intimate and often vulnerable moments for clients including Will Smith and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Also from the mailbag as we walk, making pictures of the beautifully inanimate, the things that we pass by every day and never give a second thought to, a case of mistaken Googling when typing in the letters M A L and I, a letter on dragging yourself out of bed at sunrise, solar eclipses, the winner of last month’s assignment, plus it being the second Friday of the month, street photographer and photography mentor Valérie Jardin joins me for Visual Stories, this month talking about timeless pictures in Paris.

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LEARN:

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

John Dolan’s reason for embracing The Imperfect. See Leah and Bob’s wedding, discussed in the show today.

Christopher Herwig’s incredible Soviet Bus Stops project, featured in episode 422.

The fateful journey of the Edmund Fitzgerald, one of the many vessels lost to the storms of the great lakes.

A brief explanation of Trig Points.

Mali Davies’ YouTube channel as discovered by David Lloyd.

MUSIC LINKS: Fernando (Feu) Marinho sang and wrote the playout song today Sopro do Mar. Music on the show is sourced primarily from Artlist.

JOHN DOLAN

VALÉRIE JARDIN

This month’s Visual Stories mentoring from Valérie features photographs and learnings from her Paris Intemporel project.

ALAN HILL

Visit Alan Hill’s website, A Life In Headphones which documents his work as a sound mixer. For more on the Still Here project about chairs, visit his special Insta grid.

MYLES BARFIELD

I wasn’t able to get further south to get the total eclipse, but was 95% happy with what I was able to capture. The multilayered sunbow in “Ringed Eclipse” made for a really unique view, we also had wispy clouds in the sky adding to the depth. The second image “Duality”, was taken in infrared, an unexpected bonus is if you look closely, you can actually see stars surrounding the eclipse.

See more of Myles’ work on his website.

CRAIG WILSON

NEALE JAMES

Sketchbook pictures from today’s photowalk.

VIDEO LIBRARY

The following videos/subjects are referenced within today’s show.

Mali Davies, the person, not the country in West Africa.

David Lloyd shared the song inspired by the Edmund Fitzgerald.

#428 THE TRUTH OF A PERFECT IMPERFECT PHOTOGRAPH