Ray Di Pietro is a working photojournalist based in Nashville. From political candidates to protests, street scenes to t-shirts he shoots it all. I found him almost by accident when searching on Instagram and was struck by his style and felt like we’d get on. I was proved right by this wonderful conversation which I think you’ll all enjoy and which starts and finishes with Ray’s attire which compliments the way he shows up every day.

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A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

I asked Stasia if she would be up for speaking with me about her book, Ephemerality, for a little midweek episode this week. She’s fantastic company so the excuse to get her on a call seemed like a good one. Of course, because it’s me, we talk the book but we also talk about future guest Krystle Wright, my one camera rule, sensor cleaning, Irn-Bru and haggis.

More about this show:

A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

Nitrate Fox is a wet plate portrait photographer who has made a name for herself shooting incredible hand crafted tintypes and most recently has released a book of Roller Derby players shot all over the USA. As you’ll hear, she put herself through it to create this body of work. She was a fantastic guest using a very specialist process to make magical images and I hope you enjoy this conversation.

More about this show:

A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

This week in a special episode I speak to Dan Rubin about his beta testing of the new software by Affinity and what a powerful and free. creative suite of tools means for the next generation of creatives.

More about this show:

A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

My guest today is Ted Forbes. A photographer and educator from the US who has made videos online for over 16 years. He released a book last year summarising his thoughts and feeling about the art form and spends much of his time on workshops traveling the world and sharing knowledge. I’ve watched Ted’s videos for pretty much all of those 16 years so the opportunity to spend a hour speaking with him was a real treat, I think you’ll get a kick out of our chat.

More about this show:

A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

In this special episode I speak with AJ Woomer and Dan Rubin about AJ’s first book of photography, It Feels Like The Beginning Again.

More about this show:

A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

Davide De Martis is an Italian photographer known for his portraiture of cars and people. He is a student of the visual arts and a treat to spend time with. I tracked Davide down because when I was in Germany at the Leica event, someone had driven there in a very fancy Lamborghini with Italian plates. I posted a picture to socials and was challenged by a listener to find the owner of the vehicle and ask them what the story was. It turns out that Davide shoots for the famous Italian car brand and had pitched the idea of driving to the event in the car and then writing about it for Italian Rolling Stone. Wild eh? Once I had tracked him down it seemed like I should get him on the show, he obliged and here we are. Some conversations with new guests are like long chat with an old friend and this is most definitely one of those. I would drop everything to sit down with Davide again over a coffee in a heartbeat. I hope you enjoy this chat with Davide.

More about this show:

A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

This week, a special extra episode with Phil Penman to talk about his new book, Street Scenes.

More about this show:

A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

Jasper Fforde is a writer based in Wales. He writes absurdist fiction which I love, but I only recently discovered after 20 years of reading his books, that he’s also a photographer. Shooting film pretty much exclusively he has a collection of amazing vintage film cameras that rivals any selection I’ve ever come across.

In the episode we talk about Alice Longstaff’s photos and you can find out more about her by listening to a previous episode. I couldn’t find the Red Square photographer unfortunately.

More about this show:

A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.

This week I was able to sit down with friend of the show Brandon Ruffin to talk about his new book, Migration Patterns. In this first book, Brandon shares images that help us to understand his family journey, his heritage and will encourage readers to reflect on where we come from and where we’re going.

We also discuss Rahim Fortune’s book Hard Tack, Jamel Shabazz’s A Time Before Crack and Shin Noguchi’s In Color Japan.

More about this show:

A camera is just a tool but spend enough time with photographers and you’ll see them go misty eyed when they talk about their first camera or a small fast prime that they had in their youth. Prime Lenses is a series of interviews with photographers talking about their photography by way of three lenses that mean a lot to them. These can be interchangeable, attached to a camera, integrated into a gadget, I’m interested in the sometimes complex relationship we have with the tools we choose, why they can mean so much and how they make us feel.