This episode is a guestless catch-up between TBW and Tom Warland, covering summer travels, film and digital camera adventures, alternative processes, and a long conversation about photographic theory.
The main discussion looks at the photography books that have stuck with us: the texts that changed how we think about photographs, meaning, context, and making work. From Susan Sontag and John Berger to Geoff Dyer, Stuart Franklin, P. H. Emerson and beyond, we talk about theory at university, the books that can feel impenetrable when you first encounter them, and the more accessible writing we still recommend today.
We revisit some of the dense texts frequently encountered during photography degrees — including Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida and Susan Sontag's On Photography — and contrast them with more immediately accessible books such as John Berger's Ways of Seeing and Geoff Dyer's The Ongoing Moment.
We also discuss how engaging with theory changed our own approaches to photography: moving beyond technical concerns and mimicry towards thinking about semiotics, context, representation, intention, and how photographs construct meaning.
To finish, we've each picked five books that we think are worth returning to — or discovering for the first time.
1. P. H. Emerson — Poetry in Photography
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=P+H+Emerson+Poetry+in+Photography
2. Stuart Franklin — The Documentary Impulse
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Stuart+Franklin+The+Documentary+Impulse
3. David Levi Strauss — Between the Eyes: Essays on Photography and Politics
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=David+Levi+Strauss+Between+the+Eyes
4. Geoff Dyer — Working the Room: Essays and Reviews 1999–2010
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Geoff+Dyer+Working+the+Room
5. Geoff Dyer — The Ongoing Moment
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Geoff+Dyer+The+Ongoing+Moment
1. Geoff Dyer — See/Saw: Looking at Photographs
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Geoff+Dyer+See+Saw+Looking+at+Photographs
2. Annette Kuhn — Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Annette+Kuhn+Family+Secrets+Acts+of+Memory+and+Imagination
3. John Tagg — The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=John+Tagg+The+Burden+of+Representation
4. Gerry Badger — The Pleasures of Good Photographs
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Gerry+Badger+The+Pleasures+of+Good+Photographs
5. David Campany — On Photographs
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=David+Campany+On+Photographs
We finish with a preview of a future episode tackling AI and documentary photography — what it means for photographic truth, authorship, trust, and the future of documentary practice.
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