FEATURING DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER ROBERT GUMPERT

Robert Gumpert joins me on the show today 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.

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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.

Bruce Gilden is an American street photographer known for his close-range portraits made with a handheld flash. He’s been a longtime member of Magnum Photos and has documented urban life in New York and beyond since the 1970s.

Marshall McLuhan was the Canadian thinker who gave us ideas like “the medium is the message,” long before the internet proved him right. He had this knack for spotting how technology shapes how we think and talk, decades before the rest of us caught up.

Stanley Unwin was the comic genius who invented his own mock-language, Unwinese, and somehow made nonsense sound clever. He popped up on radio, TV and films from the 50s onwards, always slightly baffling everyone but in the best possible way.

Robert Gumpert’s Division Street looks at life beneath San Francisco’s flyovers, where people without a home live a short walk from some of the world’s richest tech companies.

James Nachtwey is an American photojournalist known for documenting conflict, famine and social upheaval around the world. His work spans wars from the 1980s to the present day, and he’s regarded as one of the leading contemporary photographers of conflict and humanitarian crises.

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

MUSIC LINKS: Sita Ostheimer wrote today's playout song Until We’re Gone. 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.