A Small Voice: Conversations With Photographers

Polly Braden is a documentary photographer whose work features an ongoing conversation between the people she photographs and the environment in which they find themselves. Highlighting the small, often unconscious gestures of her subjects, Polly particularly enjoys long-term, in depth collaborations that in turn lends her photographs a unique, quiet intimacy. She works on long-term, self-initiated projects, as well as commissions for international publications.Polly has produced a large body of work that includes not only solo exhibitions and magazine features, but a number of books published by Dewi Lewis, including Holding The Baby (2022), Out of the Shadows: The Untold Story of People with Autism or Learning Disabilities (2018), and China Between (2010), and two published by Hoxton Mini Press: London’s Square Mile: A Secret City (2019) and Adventures in the Lea Valley), (2016).Polly teaches regularly at The University of Westminster and London College of Communication (LCC), she is a winner of the Jerwood Photography Prize, The Guardian Young Photographer of the Year, 2002, and the Joanna Drew Bursary 2013. Polly is nominated by Hundred Heroines 2020 and she has exhibited at numerous venues internationally. Her most recent solo exhibition, of her project Leaving Ukraine, just ended at the Foundling Museum in London, where it was on show from March 15th to October 20th 2024. In episode 242, Polly discusses, among other things:Exhitibition at the Foundling Museum, Leaving Ukraine and how it came aboutSome of the people she focussed onHolding The Baby , her project on single parentsJena’s storyWhy she has started working with film projectsHer introduction to photographyHer first trip to China: “an exercise in isolation”Her project on Chinese factories and their workersGreat Interactions book on people with learning disabilitiesHer current project she’s working onSecuring funding, building partnerships and being an entrepreneurReferenced:Patrick SutherlandCheryl NewmanKatz PicturesBecky Sexton Website | Instagram “I’m not someone who wanted to just jump in, point a camera at someone and walk away. I think I’ve always been someone who wanted it to feel very collaborative. Whether you’re on the street and you’ve made eye contact and you feel like someone’s ok with it, at the very basic level, to now as I get older, when I’d be as interested in someone doing all the work and me just being a vehicle through which someone can tell their story.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

REPOSTING THESE EPISODES FROM JANUARY 2018 IN MEMORY OF PAUL LOWE, WHO HAS SADLY DIED AT THE AGE OF 60. This is part two of a two part chat with Dr. Paul Lowe. Paul is a Reader in Documentary Photography and the Course Leader of the Masters program in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London. Before elected to put his cameras away in favour of a life in academia, Paul was an award-winning news and documentary photographer with several World Press Photo awards under his belt and many years of experience covering breaking news the world over, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Romanian revolution, Nelson Mandela’s release, famine in Africa, the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and the destruction of Grozny during the conflict in Chechnya. His pictures have appeared in such esteemed publications as TIME, Newsweek, Life, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer, and The Independent, amongst others. His book, Bosnians, documenting 10 years of the war and post-war situation in Bosnia, was published in April 2005 by Saqi books. His research interest focuses on the photography of conflict, and he has contributed chapters to the books Picturing Atrocity: Photography in Crisis (Reaktion, 2012) and Photography and Conflict. His most recent books include Photography Masterclass (buy on Amazon) published by Thames and Hudson, and Understanding Photojournalism, co-authored with Dr. Jenny Good, published by Bloomsbury Academic Press (Buy on Amazon).  - Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month. - For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here. - Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides. - Follow me on Instagram here. - Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.  

REPOSTING THESE EPISODES FROM JANUARY 2018 IN MEMORY OF PAUL LOWE, WHO HAS SADLY DIED AT THE AGE OF 60. This is part one of a two part chat with Dr. Paul Lowe. Paul is a Reader in Documentary Photography and the Course Leader of the Masters program in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London. Before elected to put his cameras away in favour of a life in academia, Paul was an award-winning news and documentary photographer with several World Press Photo awards under his belt and many years of experience covering breaking news the world over, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Romanian revolution, Nelson Mandela’s release, famine in Africa, the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and the destruction of Grozny during the conflict in Chechnya. His pictures have appeared in such esteemed publications as TIME, Newsweek, Life, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer, and The Independent, amongst others. His book, Bosnians, documenting 10 years of the war and post-war situation in Bosnia, was published in April 2005 by Saqi books. His research interest focuses on the photography of conflict, and he has contributed chapters to the books Picturing Atrocity: Photography in Crisis (Reaktion, 2012) and Photography and Conflict. His most recent books include Photography Masterclass (buy on Amazon) published by Thames and Hudson, and Understanding Photojournalism, co-authored with Dr. Jenny Good, published by Bloomsbury Academic Press (Buy on Amazon).  - Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month. - For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here. - Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides. - Follow me on Instagram here. - Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.  

Agnieszka Sosnowska was born in Warsaw, Poland and was raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and a MFA from Boston University. She is currently an elementary school teacher. She lives on farmin East Iceland. She is recognised for her self portraits that span 30 years. Currently she is working on series that embodies her life as an immigrant in Iceland. She uses the camera to take inspiration from a land that is otherworldly.“I grew up in Boston and traveled to Iceland 25 years ago on a whim”, says Agnieszka. “I fell in love and remained. With my Icelandic husband I chose to live in nature, not visit it. This decision has not been without tests. Together we have made a life that I feel we are only beginning. Everyday, I search for corners of quiet. When there, I stop and listen for a long time. These places exist around our farm, with friends, and the students I teach. These places are my everyday. They are my everything.”Agnieszka has been the recipient of a number of grants, including a Fulbright Scholars Fellowship to Poland and an American Scandinavian Fellowship to Iceland. She was awarded the Hjálmar R. Bárðarson Photography Grant by the National Museum of Iceland. Her series was awarded the Director’s Choice by the Center awards in 2017 and she has been in the Top 50 of Critical Mass on three occasions. Her work has been exhibited in the National Museum of Iceland and the Reykjavik Museum of Photography. She is represented exclusively by Vision Neil Folberg Gallery in Jerusalem.Earlier this year, Agnieszka released her debut photobook, För, published by Trespasser Books and already sold out.Her collaboration with Icelandic poet Ingunn Snædal, entitled RASK, is currently being exhibited at the Reykjavik Museum of Photography until Decembet 2024.In episode 241, Agnieszka discusses, among other things:Early years travelling to Communist PolandWanting to assimilate into the USA as an immigrantEarly education in photography at Mass. ArtHer early interest in self-portraitureNot having a plan… but being a hard workerThe trip to Iceland that changed her life……and her decision to move thereA description of where she livesThe hardest thing to adapt to being the WintersThe first things she started to photograph thereSelf-portaiture and the suckiness of documenting ageingThe freedom of realising that you don’t have to work on distinct ‘projects’‘Myth of a Woman’ - her attempt at exploring the experience of womanhoodCollaborating with her students on portrait sessionsThe last picture in the bookHer collaboration with Icelandic poet Ingunn Snædal, RASK, currently an exhibition at the Reykjavik Museum of PhotographyReferenced:Cindy ShermanMargaret JohnsonLaura McPheeIngunn SnædalBarbara BosworthWebsite | Instagram“I wanted to grow. I just didn’t know how. And I think the only way you grow is not by thinking about it but by doing it and making the mistakes. And I made a lot of mistakes. And thank God I did because in doing the mistakes I started to get more to having the self-portraits be more real. And that’s really hard to do. Especially I think as me having done it for so long, and also getting older in front of a camera, as a woman, it’s hard.” Become a full tier 1 member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of previous episodes for £5 per month.For the tier 2 archive-only membership, to access the full library of past episodes for £3 per month, go here.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.