#508 Silence, solitude and sanctuary
The Photowalk
Artist, writer and thinker Gael Hillyard joins me to talk about her creative life, from painting, writing and photography, to the deep-winter months she spent as artist-in-residence on Fair Isle, to the ten silent days she lived inside a retreat with no conversation at all. We explore how her work has been shaped by a childhood spent in a Victorian atelier, the two studios she now keeps in the Highlands, and the weather-beaten coastlines she keeps returning to as both muse and anchor. And in the mailbag this week, Spike Boydell, our man from the canoe down under, has been thinking about...
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Reflections: Toxic Voyeurism
The Photowalk
is a short-form feature within The Photowalk podcast, offering thoughtful observations on a creative life and the themes that we often discuss on Fridays, including perfectionism, impostor syndrome, comparison, confidence, and more. It’s a pause at the start of the week to recalibrate, recorded in the studio between the walks. Each Monday, you’ll find Reflections on The Photowalk podcast feed, providing a creative reset to start the week. From Tuesday to Friday, it continues exclusively on our member-supported channel, , for those who walk a little further with us. Today, Toxic Voyeurism....
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#507 What we hear, what we see, what we keep
The Photowalk
This week’s Photowalk features Bil Repenning, a musician who’s shifting his creative energy into photography. Music has shaped the way he sees the world, and you can hear that within our conversation. Following an accident five years ago, he began building a photographic practice rooted in documentary portrait work, taking the craft seriously as he moves into this next chapter. We talk about the music that shaped him, the radio that shaped us both, and what it’s like to change course mid-career without the fanfare or drama, just a genuine desire to make good work. It’s a conversation...
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Reflections: Delayed gratification
The Photowalk
is a short-form feature within The Photowalk podcast, offering thoughtful observations on a creative life and the themes that we often discuss on Fridays, including perfectionism, impostor syndrome, comparison, confidence, and more. It’s a pause at the start of the week to recalibrate, recorded in the studio between the walks. Each Monday, you’ll find Reflections on The Photowalk podcast feed, providing a creative reset to start the week. From Tuesday to Friday, it continues exclusively on our member-supported channel, , for those who walk a little further with us. Today, an unexpected...
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#506 If you fall, get back on that horse!
The Photowalk
Former champion jockey Richard Dunwoody joins me to talk about how photography has become a part of his life after racing, and there are questions about the sport that defined him, too. A three-time Champion Jockey in the UK, Richard won two Grand Nationals and a Cheltenham Gold Cup on the legendary Desert Orchid. He helped define jump racing in Britain and Ireland during one of its most competitive eras. But that was only chapter one. After stepping out of the weighing room, Richard set out on endurance rides across South America and took on challenges that carried him far beyond the...
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Reflections: Unaccustomed as I am...
The Photowalk
is a short-form feature within The Photowalk podcast, offering thoughtful observations on a creative life and the themes that we often discuss on Fridays, including perfectionism, impostor syndrome, comparison, confidence, and more. It’s a pause at the start of the week to recalibrate, recorded in the studio between the walks. Each Monday, you’ll find Reflections on The Photowalk podcast feed, providing a creative reset to start the week. From Tuesday to Friday, it continues exclusively on our member-supported channel, , for those who walk a little further with us. Today, some thoughts...
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#505 Our great American road trip and voyage
The Photowalk
This week’s show follows a journey that stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic, five days, 2,845 miles by road, from LA, through Vegas, Denver, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, finally reaching New York City, and then a week at sea aboard the Queen Mary 2. I travelled with the photojournalist Marissa Roth, helping her bring home six precious heavy cases packed with nearly half a century of negatives; work that spans everything from Women and War, her lifetime project on the human cost of conflict, to assignments that shaped her long career behind the camera. Together we crossed America before...
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Reflections: The long way home
The Photowalk
is a short-form feature within The Photowalk podcast, offering thoughtful observations on a creative life and the themes that we often discuss on Fridays, including perfectionism, impostor syndrome, comparison, confidence, and more. It’s a pause at the start of the week to recalibrate, recorded in the studio between the walks. Each Monday, you’ll find Reflections on The Photowalk podcast feed, providing a creative reset to start the week. From Tuesday to Friday, it continues exclusively on our member-supported channel, , for those who walk a little further with us. Today, a 2,845-mile...
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Reflections: The nature of fragility
The Photowalk
is a short-form feature within The Photowalk podcast, offering thoughtful observations on a creative life and the themes that we often discuss on Fridays, including perfectionism, impostor syndrome, comparison, confidence, and more. It’s a pause at the start of the week to recalibrate, recorded in the studio between the walks. Each Monday, you’ll find Reflections on The Photowalk podcast feed, providing a creative reset to start the week. From Tuesday to Friday, it continues exclusively on our member-supported channel, , for those who walk a little further with us. A tree almost striking...
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#504 What makes a good photograph?
The Photowalk
Today, step into an imaginary theatre of the mind with us for a special Photowalk edition. In this “Audience With” format, I invite David duChemin, world-traveller, humanitarian photographer, author, and longtime teacher of vision, to field ‘your’ questions as live. With no script, no filter, we explore everything from what makes a good photograph and how to discover your personal voice, to why failure is often the spark for growth. Alongside stories of his photographic and life experiences, his philosophy about creative courage, and the inevitable doubts every artist faces, this...
info_outlineRecorded on the 2025 Scotland Photowalk Retreat, this episode takes you to the Highlands’ finest locations, including Black Water, Glen Affric and the wide, quiet sweep of Loch Maree.
You’re invited to become the eleventh member of our retreat, as you join us to walk, eat, and share stories together. Hear how we embraced the use of film cameras to work together in the Inverness Darkroom, watching our images bloom in the darkroom trays, and explored how words can shape our pictures with writer Merryn Glover.
It’s part travel diary, part creative gathering; a record of what happens when you put a small group of photographers, writers and wanderers together in the Highlands, and let Scotland do the rest.
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.
WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.