A Small Voice: Conversations with photographers and filmmakers

Clémentine Schneidermann is a French photographer living and working between Paris and South Wales. She recently completed a practice-based PhD at the University of South Wales, Cardiff entitled Photographing Children in a Social Context: Narratives and Strategies (2021). Clémentine works on long term projects & commissions and is interested in new creative practices in social documentary photography. Her approach is collaborative and playful, with an interest in communities and childhood, as well as our relationship to identity and culture. She is a co-founder of Bleak Fabulous with Charlotte James, a  photography-based creative studio working across different disciplines with an emphasis on communities and collaboration.

On episode 289, Clémentine discusses, among other things:

How having a camera made it acceptable to stare at people

Studying in Switzerland… and then Newport, Wales

Falling in love with Wales immediately

Her book project, I Call Her Lisa Marie

Her project Ffasiwn

Collaborating with kids… and Charlotte James

Getting involved with Alexander MacQueen

Her forthcoming book marking ten year of Ffasiwn

Bleak Fabulous - trying to create stable income

Winning the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize

Work she has done in Greenland

Her other collaboration: The Emmas

Referenced:

Mary Ellen Mark

Sebastian Bruno

Bruce Davidson

David Barnes

Ken Grant

Paul Reas

Lina Hashim

Jacob Aue Sobol

Website | Instagram


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Aria Shahrokhshahi (b. 1996) is a British-Iranian multi-disciplinary artist, whose practice has been shaped by a deep fascination with the intricate dynamics of diverse communities and the complexities of the human condition. With a focus on social structures and the human experience, Shahrokhshahi's work serves as a critical exploration of the relationships and power dynamics that inform everyday life.

Aria’s debut photobook, Wet Ground, featuring images from Ukraine shot over a period of several years both before and after the Russian invasion in Feburary 2022, was published in April 2026 by Loose Joints.

He is currently putting the finishing touches to a feature documentary film entitled While We Heal, which also focusses on the war in Ukraine and explores the themes of healing, loss, and resilience.

 

On episode 288, Aria discusses, among other things:

Formative experiences (11 different schools!) growing up in Nottingham

How walking around the city with a camera was the start of his photography journey

Negative feedback Facebook group / YouTube channel

Early education at the Photo Parlour lab (later named Sequence) from Dan Wheelan

Using large format and why the decision to shoot B&W came out of the cost of film

Falling in love with Ukraine

It not being enough to just take pictures

Why ‘Ukraine, I guess?’ was an informal category of picture during editing

Having nothing to say about war but being interested in what happens around it

The way in which war rearranges the social hierarchy

Poem by Charlotte Shevchenko-Knight

How the title ‘Wet Ground’, and the book itself, came about

The importance of collaboration

The feature length doc he is making in Ukraine

The importance of having a commercial practice

Referenced:

Lee Friedlander

Laytoya Ruby Frazer

Don McCullin

Tim Hetherington (Which Way Is The Front Line From Here)

Shelby Lee Adams

Minor White

Alec Soth

Gregory Halpern

Nigel Shafran

Alessandra Sanguinetti

Myriam Boulos

Sohrab Hura

Lightwork

 

Website | Instagram


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Lorenzo Meloni is an Italian photographer.

He has documented some of the defining conflicts of the 21st century across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. For more than a decade, he has worked in territories marked by wars, revolutions and profound political and social transformations, developing a visual practice that views conflict not merely as an event, but as a historical, material and cultural process.

In recent years, his work has expanded beyond the battlefield. Revelation, an ongoing project, explores how science and technology are changing our relationship to the material world.

In 2022, he published the monograph We Don’t Say Goodbye, a fragmented narrative on the rise, dominance and fall of the Islamic State as a territorial entity. TIME named it one of the 20 Best Photobooks of 2022.

On episode 287, Lorenzo discusses, among other things:

How he has changed his way of working

'Starting as a revolutionary and becoming a deserter'

How his photography journey began in Yemen

How the power of photography is metaphorical not descriptive

His interest in borders and history

His book, We Don’t Say Goodbye. The theme of repetition. And why the cover is orange

The caliphate and Islamic State

His now project, Revelation

Focussing on one thing at a time

Dealing with the instability of a freelance life and keeping some freedom


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Ximena Borrazás is a Uruguayan photographer and documentary filmmaker born in Montevideo in 1992. She focuses on armed conflicts, migration, and humanitarian crises. Her work combines visual sensitivity with a strong commitment to social justice, often addressing the experiences of women and displaced populations.

She has published with major international outlets, including National Geographic, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, DW, France 24, Al Jazeera, and the Associated Press, and has worked with institutions such as UNHCR, UNESCO, and IOM.

Ximena’s project in northern Ethiopia documents the devastating aftermath of the Tigray conflict, one of the deadliest wars of the 21st century. Her images portray survivors of sexual violence, displaced families, and the enduring effects of famine and trauma. This work earned her the 2024 Tom Stoddart Award for Excellence, the Gentex Corp Personal Safety Award from the Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant, and the Africa Mundi Award for best photographic publication in Planeta Futuro of El País.

Her long-term documentary project The Scars of War, which began in Tigray, combines photography, testimony, and documentation to investigate conflict-related sexual violence through a forensic lens. Rather than treating sexual violence as an isolated act, the project traces it as a weapon of war, examining physical, psychological, and social evidence left behind, and the systems, or lack thereof, that respond to it.

Ximena is currently based in Ukraine where, aside from continuing to photograph, she has a full-time job as a Liaison and Communications Officer with the United Nations.

On episode 286, Ximena discusses, among other things:

Working for the UN in Ukraine

Her first experience of visiting the Polish border

The nature of working amidst drone warfare

Challenges of being a freelancer in a conflict zone

Why she doesn’t really want to be a photographer

The experience of being in Kyiv on a daily basis

Her life before photography

Early forays into documentary work

Her project in Tigray, Ethiopia and the context of the conflict there

How she began The Scars of War, her work on conflict related sexual violence

How serendipity on a HEFAT course led to publication in The Guardian

How some X-rays changed everything and why they were so powerful

How she has extended her project to other areas, and focussed on male victims

How her job at the UN combines with her advocacy work

Website | Instagram


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Sam Faulkner is a London-based photographer and the founder of Print Swap, an iOS app. where photographers and visual artists exchange gallery-quality physical prints directly. No buying, no selling, no follower counts.

Sam came to photography the hard way, travelling into Afghanistan in 1994 with a battered Canon, a few rolls of film and very little plan. His work has since moved between reportage, portraiture and long-form photographic projects, including Unseen Waterloo, his battlefield portrait series exhibited at Somerset House.

Print Swap began with a gap Sam’s own wall and a long-held habit among photographers: trading prints of each other's work. In a world of endless images and thin attention, it is built on a simple belief: a print on the wall changes the relationship.

 

In episode 285, Sam discusses, among other things:

How his new app., Print Swap, came to fruition.

How he got into reportage photography in search of adventure.

Kashmir and Afghanistan - talkng your way in and talking your way out.

Coming back with the six rolls of film that won him the Ian Parry Award.

The influence of Nick Danziger’s book Danziger’s Adventures.

Changes in the industry.

His global story about ‘the war on drugs’.

Lessons learned from shooting Mario Testino.

The threat of AI and the issue of trusted brands within the news media.

His decision to step back from photojournalism.

His new working life directing commercials.

His Unseen Waterloo project.

Referenced:

David Hurn

Jonas Bendiksen

Ian Teh

Omar Ashtawy

Neil Burgess

Nick Danziger

Aidan Sullivan

Mario Testino

Stephen Dupont

Website | Instagram


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