FEATURING YOUR LETTERS & PHOTOGRAPHER VALÉRIE JARDIN

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.

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

Join us on the Black Isle near Inverness, for the Scotland ‘26 retreat, staying on a working soft-fruit farm with Highland views. The retreat includes small creative workshops, from photogravure printing to sound and writing sessions, plus plenty of time to walk, talk and make photographs together.

Enjoy daily REFLECTIONS, Monday to Friday through you favourite podcast player apps: APPLE, SPOTIFY, AMAZON MUSIC, the show’s WEBSITE page, or by adding the RSS FEED to your podcast app of choice.

Joshua Charow is a New York-based documentary photographer and filmmaker born in 1998, who got into photography by climbing skyscrapers and exploring abandoned subway stations as a teenager growing up in New Jersey. His best-known project saw him spend years tracking down the last remaining artists living in New York's protected industrial lofts, ringing thousands of doorbells to find them. Loft Law hit number one on Amazon's photojournalism chart and has gone into its third reprint, while his documentary series on the same subject has racked up over 35 million views online. Also, see The Pool Cleaner below.

GMB Akash is a Bangladeshi documentary photographer whose long-term work focuses on people living on the margins, from child labourers to displaced communities, with projects often tied to direct support for the individuals he photographs.

Joshua Charow is a New York-based documentary photographer and filmmaker with a particular interest in the hidden stories and subcultures of the city. Loft Law saw him spend three years knocking on strangers' doors to photograph and document more than fifty artists living in protected lofts across Lower Manhattan that came under legal protection in 1982 in areas like SoHo, Tribeca, and the Bowery.

Lynn Fraser is a photographer based in the Scottish Highlands who won Amateur Photographer of the Year in 2024, a competition that drew over 12,000 entries from more than 2,200 photographers. Lynn’s photography spans travel, portraiture and landscape, with a particular eye for human moments.

Steve Shipman was a photographer based in St Albans who started out shooting celebrities for the Sunday magazines. Seven of his portraits are in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. He later moved into wedding photography, bringing that same editorial instinct with him, and became genuinely well-regarded for it. He passed in 2018, although his website remains online as an archive of his work and his life.

Mali Davies is a landscape and woodland photographer from the North West of England, who also makes YouTube films, runs workshops, hosts his own podcast called Let's Create, and produces zines and fine art prints from his work.

Glenn Chapman, known online as Black Crag, a name taken from a geological feature in the Lake District — is a landscape photographer, YouTuber and wild camper based in Grange, Cumbria.

Listen to the Bangladesh Special HERE, and also on your favourite podcast player apps.

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry with roots going back to the 17th century, built around brevity and a single moment of observation, traditionally seventeen syllables across three lines, though what matters more is the sense of pause it creates. The poet Matsuo Bashō is widely credited with turning it into the serious art form it became, and his work remains the benchmark many writers return to.

Jack Lowe is a photographer who set himself the task of visiting and documenting all 238 RNLI lifeboat stations across the UK and Ireland, and the twist is that he shoots everything on glass plates using a Victorian wet collodion process from 1851, working out of a decommissioned NHS ambulance called Neena that he uses as a mobile darkroom. The plates have to be developed within about ten minutes of exposure, so there's no margin for error. His work has been acquired by the National Maritime Museum in London and the National Library of Wales, among others.

MUSIC LINKS: Lance Conrad (with vocals by Georgia Day) wrote today's playout song Our way back home. 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.