In this episode, Perrin sits down with Alison Bounce, an underwater portrait and maternity photographer based in France. She has spent 12 years photographing people beneath the surface, even though she’s shy, claustrophobic and afraid of water. They talk about how a camera became her way past shyness, how she helps nervous clients feel calm underwater, and the Antarctic voyage that became her book Austral.

Alison talks about leaving her first camera in its box for six months, why she calls the camera a passport for shy people, and her best tip for wedding photographers: follow the kids. She gets into the moment in the Maldives that pulled her underwater and how she coaches clients to breathe and hold for about ten seconds. She also covers why maternity shoots use fewer immersions, flooding her gear when she was starting out, and the ten-hour storm at Cape Horn that kept her from opening her photos for five years.

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I’m in there regularly, and you’ll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

Help shape the new GBPW. Our Founders Deal gives the first 100 members 50% off a yearly membership for as long as they stay, plus a direct line to our team. Ends November 30th or when spots run out: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/deal/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with John Leech, a UK wedding photographer, to talk about how he approaches a wedding day and where he finds the real emotion in it, from the getting ready to the walk up the aisle.

John talks about picking up a camera at about six or seven, learning to develop and print in his dad’s darkroom, and why he likes going into a wedding blind with no shot list. He gets into why the getting ready phase helps couples accept him as a background element, why the signing of the register is such a hard shot to get, and why the moment a couple walk up the aisle on their own is one of his favorites. He also covers bouncing flash and never using it direct, when he goes black and white, photographing the main ceremony at his daughter’s wedding, the first time he felt really nervous at a wedding, his Morecambe Bay photo books, and his advice for anyone shooting their first wedding.

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I’m in there regularly, and you’ll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

Want to help us build new features and steer the direction of the community? Don’t forget to check out our Founders Deal which gives the first 100 people 50% off the yearly membership as long as they are a member. It comes with a direct line to our team to help shape the culture of the new GBPW. Offer ends November 30th or when the last spot is gone: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/deal/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Neil Selkirk, a London-born, New York-based photographer who assisted Richard Avedon, took Diane Arbus’s masterclass, and went on to become the only person authorized to print her photographs since her death. They talk about his career and his new book, Why Photographs?

Neil talks about how a job with Irving Penn that fell through over a visa led him into Avedon’s studio, the Arbus photograph he saw on a wall in London that devastated him and took fifteen or twenty years to live with on his own wall, and the winter he spent searching through 7,000 rolls of film to find her negatives. He gets into why he believes photography is about discovery rather than creation, what the camera reveals that we never notice when we press the shutter, why he considers composition deadly to a photograph, and why he thinks photographers should keep it simple and keep it straight at a time when no one knows which images to trust.

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I'm in there regularly, and you'll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

Want to help us build new features and steer the direction of the community? Don't forget to check out our Founders Deal which gives the first 100 people 50% off the yearly membership as long as they are a member. It comes with a direct line to our team to help shape the culture of the new GBPW. Offer ends November 30th or when the last spot is gone.