FEATURING STREET PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER TIM ALLEN

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.

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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.

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See Giles Penfound’s Substack, Five by Four, and also Jeff Smeraldo’s Picture of the Day.

Artisans, Tim Allen’s project photographing craftspeople.

Listen to Laura Gates in episode 510, the edition that inspired Glenn Sowerby to make football street pictures.

Niall McDiarmid is a Scottish photographer based in London. His work primarily documents the people and landscape of Britain.

Gabrielle Motola is a photographer and author whose work weaves intimacy, identity, and emotional responsibility through images and reflective text, spanning street portraiture, therapeutic practice, and books including An Equal Difference and Elūl, the latter shown at Photo London with the Photobook Club Collective.

Andy Gotts is a London-born photographer who’s been making stark, straightforward portraits of Hollywood actors and big-name musicians for over three decades.

Studs Terkel was an American author, oral historian and radio broadcaster best known for talking with everyday people as well as famous figures and turning their stories into books and conversations that changed how we think about work, life and history. He won a Pulitzer Prize for The Good War and hosted a long-running show out of Chicago.

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

MUSIC LINKS: Roie Shpigler 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.