Before Christmas, I asked you to send me one photograph from 2025. Not necessarily what you consider to be your best, not your most liked, and not something measured against anyone else in either competition or social media terms. Just the picture that said to you, "This was my 2025." The one you kept coming back to.

My plan was to invite ten photographers to the first episode of 2026 to talk about their pictures and the why behind them. Over a hundred arrived, each with a story attached, and it quickly became clear that with the compelling stories you sent in, we'd need to spread this across two editions, and so that is where we are.

As I spoke to the people behind these pictures, the conversations opened out into how we see, why we photograph, and what was going on in life when the shutter was pressed. This episode is the first half of those conversations. Unrushed, unscripted, and simply photographers talking about images that meant something to them, and by extension, saying a little about themselves.

David Wright reflects on serenity in photography through an image that feels like an emotional time capsule. John Charlton talks about a Northern Lights photograph whose meaning runs far deeper than the light in the sky. Wayne Richards joins me on the path to talk about a rag tied to a railing that all but demanded to be photographed. Kim Cofield shares thoughtful advice drawn from her experience of making animal portraits, and Mark Creamer looks back on a photograph made in the middle of a disaster zone.

Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond.

Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.

WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.