A Small Voice: Conversations with photographers and filmmakers

By Ben SmithArts Visual Arts

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A Small Voice: Conversations with photographers and filmmakers episodes

May 20282 - Richard Young
Richard Young is a photographer who was once known as the “king of the paparazzi”.
His portfolio is a who’s who of some of the biggest stars in film, music, stage and popular culture from the past fifty years. From gatecrashing Elizabeth Taylor’s party for Richard Burton’s 50th at the Dorchester to later being invited to photograph her Damehood celebrations. He can count the first photographs of Paul Getty Jr. after his kidnapping as just one of his many scoops.
He was born in Hackney to a Jewish family and his father ran a hosiery stall in Berwick Street market for more than sixty years. Richard has dyslexia and after being expelled from school at fourteen, he went to Soho and landed a job in fashionable clothes shop frequented by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, David Hockney and Francis Bacon.
A two-year stint in New York followed, working as a studio assistant at Electric Lady Studios, before he returned to London and found himself in a bookshop handed a camera and told to get on with photographing authors.
For the past fifty years, he has lived a nocturnal, high octane life of private jets, parties and exclusive events, eventually becoming as much a fixture in the world of celebrity as the people he photographed.
Richard lives in London with his wife Susan. His photography gallery is in London and has visitors from around the world.
On episode 282, Richard discusses, among other things:
Wanting to escape school

Learning that trust is currency

Crashing Richard Burton’s birthday party

And how the proceeds from the resulting picture bought him his first house

How his journey into photography began with a roll of blank film

Adventures in New York and Paris

Having a guardian angel

Still being sent on jobs at 79

Turning up to Freddie Mercury’s party in drag by mistake

How he navigated the switch to digital

Why he reccommends that young photographers experiment with film

Photographing flowers …and the east end of London

The importance of saying sorry when necessary

His gallery in west London

How the business has changed
Website | Instagram

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1 hr 3 min
May 06281 - Ilvy Njiokiktjien
Ilvy Njiokiktjien is a Dutch photojournalist, filmmaker, podcast host and educator who has been creating and sharing stories for almost two decades. She is based in Utrecht, the Netherlands and is a contributing photographer to VII Foundation. Ilvy is committed to documenting the social and political issues that shape our world. Her work is characterized by a sensitive eye and a compassionate and personal relationship with her subjects.
For nearly 2 decades, she chronicled South Africa’s first post-apartheid generation. Ilvy became intrigued by these young adults and portrayed them in her own, personal and intimate style. “Equality is there on paper, but a majority of young people believes white South Africans still have better chances, as the legacy of centuries of inequality is still there.” The result is the project Born Free – Mandela’s Generation of Hope, which sparked a documentary, an interactive website, a book, feature articles, and a traveling exhibition.
Her work with Ukraine’s LGBTQ community in March 2022 tells the tale of people’s loves and fears – and their resolve in the face of Russian aggression. Ilvy’s latest project on co-housing follows people who opt to live in non-traditional groups or who welcome extended family members into a shared home.
Ilvy was the first woman to win the Dutch Silver Camera Award for photographer of the year and was named the first ever Photographer Laureate of the Netherlands in 2013. In addition to numerous awards from international organizations such as World Press Photo and POYi, Ilvy’s images have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Guardian, Stern, Der Spiegel, TIME, and other major outlets. She has exhibited at Visa pour l’Image in France, New York’s Photoville, and museums and festivals around the world.
On episode 281, Ilvy discusses, among other things:
Her foray into podcasting for Canon

The pattern of her work life

How things have changed since she started

Collaboration and the importance of writing and interviews

Approach to personal long-term projects

Her current project about ‘receiving states’

Her approach to research

Why it’s good to reinvent yourself

Using a simple Google search to generate ideas

Her project in South Africa, Born Free

Why she got kicked out of her internship on The Star newspaper

Her interest in ‘interactive long reads’ and the book she made with one of her subjects

The perils and advantages of social media

Her family history project and the joint exhibition that came of it

The tendency for younger documentary photographers to be introspective and why that might be

Her foray into podcasting - asking her fellow VII photographers four questions

The importance of failure

Her 'dream story'
Referenced:
Carl De Keyser

Matt Black

Sara Terry

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1 hr 12 min
April 22280 - Jon McCormack
Jon McCormack is - as plainly stated on his Linked-In profile - a Photographer, Nerd, Educator and Conservationist
His photographic work is deeply informed by his upbringing in the stark, untamed landscapes of the Australian Outback, where early life among sheep and cattle fostered a profound respect for nature’s rhythms of resilience and fragility. Beginning as a teenager photographing quiet, often-overlooked moments in the bush, he developed a photographic voice rooted in patience, attention, and ecological empathy. Today, his images explore the intricate patterns and emotional textures of wild places, seeking to inspire both wonder and a sense of responsibility, and are widely published and used by global conservation organizations to advocate for the protection of fragile ecosystems.
In addition to photography Jon is also actively involved in conservation and social good organizations. He is a member of The Explorer’s Club, a founding board member of Sealegacy, co-founder of his non-profit in Kenya, The Kilgoris Project and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Alongside his creative work, Jon has a day job as a tech nerd. He is Vice President of Camera & Photos Software Engineering at Apple in California, leading the software team responsible for the iPhone camera.
His new photobook entitiled Patterns: Art Of The Natural World, is published by Damiani and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Vital Impacts, the non-profit founded in 2021 by photographer Ami Vitale and visual journalist Eileen Mignoni to advance conservation through visual storytelling, community partnership, and strategic investment in local solutions.
On episode 280, Jon discusses, among other things:
His formative experiences on a remote Australian farm and how that influenced the person he became

Discovering his love of mathematics… and of nature… and photography

How his ‘impossible to predict' career in tech began at a conference in Manchester, UK

How is current role with Apple allows him to ‘live photography’ for his day job

A couple of major technical advances in mobile phone photography

His thoughts on the impact and implications of AI

His new book, Patterns, and how it came from his experience of shooting during Covid

The challenge of trying to resolve the tension between his environmentalism and working in the tech industry

His close connection to Vital Impacts, to whom he is donating 100% of the proceeds from the book

His level of optimism vs. pessimism re. the chances of environmental armageddon
Referenced:
Ernst Haas

Edwin Land

Nick Brandt

Edward Burtynsky

Ami Vitale

Website | Instagram

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1 hr 21 min
April 08279 - Dragana Jurišić
Dragana Jurišić is a photographer, writer and filmmaker. She has exhibited extensively and won numerous awards. Dragana’s work is in several significant collections, including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Arts Council Collection, the Irish State Art Collection (OPW), the Bank of Spain, and others.
Her first book, YU: The Lost Country, received accolades worldwide. Her second book, Museum, a collaboration with Paula Meehan, was published in July 2019 and is now in its 2nd edition. Her Own, published in December 2022, received outstanding reviews in El País, The Irish Times and RTE Culture. Dragana is currently working on her first feature-length documentary, The Last Balkan Cowboy (working title).
In episode 279, Dragana discusses, among other things:
Her forthcoming debut documentary.

How everything she’s done is an attempt at making sense of her experience during the Balkan war

Her book YU: The Lost Country

The influence of Rebecca West’s book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia

How she would measure the success of the new film

Wanting to reach as large an audience as possible

The imposter syndrome she felt as a first time film maker

Being ‘ergonomic’ about the way she approaches making

The story of her Aunt and her book Her Own
Website | Instagram

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1 hr 10 min
March 25278 - Nederlands Foto Museum Special
Featuring:
Sjef van Duin, Librarian

Roderick van der Loos, Interim Director

Zippora Elders, incoming General & Artistic Director

Grace Wong-Si-Kwie, Head of Presentations and Public Outreach

Guinevere Ras, Curator of opening exhibition Awakening in Blue

Martijn van den Broek, Head of Collections

Joop De Jong, Guest Curator of opening exhibition, Rotterdam In Focus
Website | Instagram

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1 hr 2 min
March 11277 - Zackary Canepari
Zackary Canepari is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow whose work moves between documentary film and photography. He began as a photojournalist in India and Pakistan before creating the Sundance-screened series California Is a place, a portrait of the golden state unraveling at the edges.
He later co-directed the feature documentary T-Rex (SXSW), following teenage Olympic boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields as she fought her way toward gold; the film was adapted by MGM into the narrative feature The Fire Inside. His Guggenheim-supported project Flint Is a place expanded documentary storytelling across film, photography, archival material, and immersive media, earning a World Press Photo Award and recognition as Multimedia Photographer of the Year at POYi.
His monograph REX won POYi Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture First PhotoBook Prize.
Zackary's documentary Fire in Paradise won an Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow Award and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. He received a second Emmy for directing The Gallagher Effect for The New York Times Presents (FX/Hulu).
Instagram
In episode 277, Zackary discusses, among other things:
How he started in photography

The experience of cutting his photographic teeth in India

The complicated question of whether it's a good time to be a filmmaker

His early project California Is a place, with his collaborator Drea Cooper

Learning the ropes through experience

His first feature documentary, T-Rex, and being smiled upon by the documentary gods

Flint Town

Thoughts & Prayers

Fire in Paradise

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1 hr 21 min
February 25276 - Jessica Dimmock
Jessica Dimmock’s work focusses on humanistic and intimate storytelling. She is the recipient of numerous international awards for her photography and video work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, three World Press Photo Awards for short films, The Inge Morath Award from Magnum, the F Award for Concerned Photography from Forma and Fabrica, The Infinity Award for Photojournalist of the Year from the International Center of Photography, and The Kodak Award for Best Cinematography at the Hamptons International Film Festival. She is a Sundance Edit and Story Lab Fellow, and her first feature film The Pearl was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Dallas International Film Festival and was executive produced by Impact Partners. Her clients include HBO, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Microsoft, The UNFPA, Aperture, Showtime and PBS. She is the co-director of the Netflix series Flint Town as and directed on the reboot of Unsolved Mysteries and AppleTV’s Home.
In 2007 Jessica produced a photobook entitled The Ninth Floor (Contrasto).
Her most recent film, co-directed with her partner Zackery Canepari, is Thoughts & Prayers: How to Survive an Active Shooter in America, focussing on the USA's $3 billion active shooter preparadness industry and its effects on teachers and students, released in 2025.
In episode 276, Jessica Discusses, among other things:
Current projects

Her attraction to dark subject matter

Her TV mini series Captive Audience

Forming close relationships with her subject

The random coffee shop interaction that changed her direction forever

The chance encounter that led to her first big photography project and subsequent book, The Ninth Floor

How the musician Moby played a part in her journey

Serendipity and her project The Pearl

The challenge of landing lucrative commercial work

The Netflix series she co-directed, Flint Town

Her most recent film Thoughts & Prayers: How to Survive an Active Shooter in America
Website | Instagram

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1 hr 12 min
February 11275 - Philip Blenkinsop
On episode 275, Philip discusses, among other things:
His ‘cabinet of curiosities’ studio space
A recent, powerful urge to photograph in Australia
Why he left the newspaper world there in favour of Thailand
His early project “The Cars That Ate Bangkok”
His sense of anger at injustice
His ‘near death experience’ on Sleeping Dog Mountain
Process, shooting on film, and working close to the subject
The influence of Koudelka’s book Exiles
The ways in which his old home of Bangkok has changed since he was there
Why he moved to France
Website | Instagram
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1 hr 15 min
January 28274 - Joachim Ladefoged
Joachim Ladefoged is a Danish photographer born in 1970. He has worked as a professional since 1991, and is a member of the international photo agency VII. Today he is a staff photographer at the Danish Daily Jyllands-Posten, but over the years he has worked regularly for magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, Mare, The New Yorker and TIME.
Joachim has received numerous awards for his work from institutions such as Visa D'Or, World Press Photo, POYi, Eissie, and Agfa, as well as Picture of the Year in Denmark. Over the years he has published 3 monographs, Albanians, Mirror and Time After My Time.
Joachim photographs everything with the same inventiveness and diligence, whether sports, war or commerce. His highly accomplished career has seen him master complex, violent news stories, commercial assignments, daily news, and rich, vibrant, and spectacular feature stories. Joachim is credited with being one of the driving forces behind the new wave of Danish photojournalism.
In episode 274, Joachim discusses, among other things:
Having arthritis as a teenager and the impact it had on his life (good and bad)
Starting his career as an intern at a local newspaper
Moving on to ‘the best job in the world’ at national newspaper Politiken
Winning the World Press Photo award
Words of wisdom received from Magnum legend Constantine Manos
Getting into Magnum… and being chucked out again
Being part of ‘the new wave of Danish photojounalists’
Why changing direction on becoming a father was “the right decision, but a hard decision”
Why three photographers were just made redundant on his newspaper
His approach to shooting and lighting portraits
His book project Time After My Time
Photographing his kids with the iPhone
Instagram
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1 hr 16 min
January 14 273 - Lee Shulman
Lee Shulman is a visual artist, filmmaker, and founder of The Anonymous Project, one of the most significant archives of vernacular color photography in existence. Since 2017, the project has amassed nearly one million Kodachrome slides from the 1940s to the early 2000s — intimate, everyday images that might have otherwise been lost to time. Through curation and transformation, Lee reanimates these personal photographs, weaving them into compelling narratives that explore memory, family, love, and cultural shifts across generations.
Lee’s career also extends into film direction, notably with his debut feature documentary, "I Am Martin Parr," released in 2025. This film chronicles a road trip with renowned photographer Martin Parr, revisiting iconic locations from his oeuvre. Shulman's prior collaboration with Parr on the "Déjà View" project, which paired Parr's distinctive photographs with images from The Anonymous Project, laid the groundwork for their working relationship. The documentary provides an affectionate portrayal of Parr's artistic process and enduring work ethic, further cementing Lee’s engagement with the broader discourse of photography.
Born in London in 1973, Lee lives and works in Paris. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale and Rencontres d’Arles, and is held in major collections such as the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and Photo Elysée in Lausanne.
Website | Instagram

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1 hr 11 min

About A Small Voice: Conversations with photographers and filmmakers

From the publisher's feed

Fortnightly in-depth interviews featuring a diverse range of talented, innovative, world-class photographers from established, award-winning and internationally exhibited stars to young and emerging talents discussing their lives, work and process with fellow photographer, Ben Smith. The most recent 50 episodes are on this free feed, 200+ more are in the archive!