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Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Craig Atkinson from Café Royal Books. This episode was recorded to coincide with the exhibition CAFÉ ROYAL BOOKS at Stills which ran from 10 November 2023 to 10 February 2024. Craig Atkinson is an artist and lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire. In 2005 he founded Café Royal Books and since 2012 he has been producing weekly publications on documentary photography, linked to Britain and Ireland, in an accessible and affordable zine format. Now spanning more than 600 issues, Café Royal Books has built-up a large, unique printed archive of documentary photography with broad appeal for its photographic, social and historic interest. Amongst those that collect Café Royal Books publications are universities and collections including: MoMA, New York; Tate; and the V&A, London. The exhibition, ‘Café Royal Books: Documentary, Zines and Subversion,’ was held at the Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol in 2022 and in the same year, Café Royal Books received the Royal Photographic Society Award for Photographic Publishing.  www.caferoyalbooks.com @caferoyalbooks (Instagram)   Episode music by Dom Mino’

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Alicia Bruce. Alicia Bruce is an award-winning, working-class photographer, community collaborator, educator, and activist based in Scotland. Her photography sits between documentary and staged imagery focusing on communities, environments, and human rights. Alicia Bruce is a member of the collective Women Photograph. Her first monograph 'I Burn But I Am Not Consumed' Daylight Books (USA), 2023 documents sixteen years of Donald Trump’s impact on a coastal Scottish community near where the artist grew up.  Images from this monograph are currently being exhibited at Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago and soon at Lishui Photography Festival, China.  Alicia’s photographs have been exhibited and published internationally, winning several artists’ residencies and bursaries including the Royal Scottish Academy Morton Award. Her images have been featured in Le Monde, The Guardian, FT Weekend, The Times, The Scotsman, BBC News and STV News, and are represented in several public and private collections including the National Galleries of Scotland, St Andrews University Special Collections, UK Parliament, Martin Parr Foundation and The RSA. She recently gave talks at Art Institute Chicago, MoCP, Chicago, Columbia College, International Centre for Photography and School of Visual Arts in New York, Aberdeen Art Gallery, BOP Bristol and Stills.   Exhibitions include MoCP, Chicago, VU Photo, Quebec, National Galleries of Scotland, Stills, Street Level, Ffotogallery, Impressions Gallery, Open Eye and more.  Her commissioned portfolio features clients including Harpers Magazine (NYC), Reuters, Project Ability, engage, Zero Tolerance, Crisis and more.     As an educator, Alicia has over 15 years experience teaching in communities, galleries and in further and higher education.   She is a Teaching Fellow at Edinburgh College of Art (Photography and Fine Art) as well as at Edinburgh University Centre for Open Learning. She taught Darkroom, analogue and digital workshops at Street Level Photoworks for over a decade as well as in Scotland's Colleges (Stevenson College, Fife College and City of Glasgow College) and National Galleries of Scotland.  She is founder of Portobello Photography School and holds a PDA in teaching.    Current Exhibition  'Love: Still Not the Lesser' Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago    Next Exhibition  2023 Lishui Photography Festival, China  In partnership with Format Festival    Website: www.aliciabruce.co.uk Instagram: aliciabrucephoto Episode music by Dom mino'

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Markéta Luskačová. This special episode of Photography Down The Line is a recording of a conversation between Ben Harman and the photographer Markéta Luskačová at a public event held at Stills, Edinburgh on 12th August 2023. The event marked the launch of Luskačová's solo exhibition at Stills.  Markéta Luskačová was born in 1944 and became a freelance photographer in 1968 whilst undertaking postgraduate studies in Photography at the Academy of Film and Fine Arts, Prague. She relocated to London in 1975 and was a Nominee Photographer with Magnum Photographic Agency, Paris from 1976-80. Since 1971, Luskačová’s work has featured in exhibitions around the world and notable solo exhibitions have been held at the V&A, London (1983-84); Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood (1989); Whitechapel Gallery, London (1991); Stills Gallery, Sydney (1998); Leica Gallery, Prague (2014); Tate Britain, London (2018-19); and The Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol (2019).   Luskačová's solo exhibition at Stills opened for the Edinburgh Art Festival in August 2023. It brought together more than 50 works from some of Luskačová’s best-known series covering subjects such as: Pilgrims; Juvenile Jazz Bands in the North of England; Durham Cathedral and Chorister School; London Markets; London Street Musicians, Chiswick Women’s Aid and Carnivals in the Czech Republic. Stills worked with Luskačová to select photographs on the theme of children – an interest that permeates almost all of her work and for several years was the main subject of her pictures. By following this thread, we united photographs made around the UK and in Ireland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, dating from 1964-2009. The exhibition has been developed in partnership with the Centre for British Photography, London where it will be presented in 2024. Episode music by Dom mino'

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Kelly O'Brien. Kelly O'Brien is a creative worker, documentary photographic artist, educator and PhD researcher. Within her working practice, Kelly explores visual transformation and storytelling in connection to personal and political narratives through making and theory. She is interested in the photographic relationship to absence, investigating how invisibility can be utilised as a tool of possibility and perception to visualise erased and misrepresented histories. The themes that currently anchor her work are class, labour, family, care and liberation.   Kelly is curious about the potential in experimental collaboration and collective participation, in both the production and the dissemination of her work. She works within an intersectional feminist framework where an ethical questioning of the status quo and power relations are central.  She has been the recipient of several awards and her work has been widely exhibited and published. With over 15 years of experience as a creative labourer, Kelly has worked as a community arts facilitator and producer, collaborating on projects that focus on radical social justice. She also lectures in photography, working in partnership with universities and art institutions in the UK and internationally. Instagram  @kelly.o.brien Episode music by Dom mino'

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Marilena Vlachopoulou. Marilena Vlachopoulou is a documentary and portrait photographer from Athens based in Glasgow. Since graduating from Kelvin College in 2018, she has been documenting Glasgow’s music scene and gig landscape in a variety of analogue formats. Her work has been featured widely, from the pages of The Herald newspaper to the walls of The Benaki Museum, as part of Athens Photo Festival 2020. She has been commissioned by House of VANS London, Govanhill Baths, The Skinny, The Wire, Polaroid and others. Episode music by Dom mino'

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Sophie Gerrard. Sophie Gerrard (Scottish, b.1978) is an award-winning international artist working within the field of photography. Her practice is characterised by sensitive and evocative visual exploration of the natural environment and our relationship to it.   Sophie’s work has been included in publications including The New York Times and The Guardian. Her work is shown in national and international public institutions including Paris Photo, The Martin Parr Foundation, The Photographers’ Gallery, The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, OFF_festival Bratislava, Unseen Amsterdam, FORMAT International Photography Festival, The Fox Talbot Museum, and Perth Museum & Art Gallery. Her work is held in private and national collections including The Sir Elton John Collection, The National Collection of Scotland, The University of St Andrews Collection, Coutts Bank private collection and the StatOil Collection.   Sophie has a Masters from The University of The Arts London, and degrees from Edinburgh College of Art and Manchester University. Episode music by Dom mino'

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Jonjo Borrill. Jonjo Borrill was born on the North-East coast of England. After a childhood of struggling to express himself, photography became a cathartic outlet for his thoughts and feelings about the world. As his photographic practice matured, Borrill's interest became documenting others' stories and giving them a voice and platform to be heard. In 2022 Borrill completed his Master's degree in photography online at Falmouth University in England, studying in South Korea, where he has lived since 2019. Borrill's first published book 'The Dragon That Ascended To The Heavens' is part of the Bavarian State Library Manuscripts and Rare Books Artists Collection. www.jonjoborrill.com @jonjoborrill (Instagram) Episode music by Dom mino'

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Ishiuchi Miyako. This special episode of Photography Down The Line is a recording of a conversation between Ben Harman and the photographer Ishiuchi Miyako at a public event held at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh on 2nd August 2022. The event marked the launch of Miyako's solo exhibition at Stills, the first ever display of her work in Scotland. Miyako responded to questions with the assistance of an interpreter, the filmmaker Linda Hoaglund.  Ishiuchi Miyako was born in 1947 and first started taking photographs, self-taught, in the mid-1970s. In 2005, with her series Mother's, she represented Japan at the prestigious Venice Biennale in Italy. Her work has been exhibited and collected by numerous collections and institutions around the world. Major exhibitions of her work have been held at J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2015) and the Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan (2017). Miyako was the recipient of the 2014 Hasselblad Award. Linda Hoaglund is a bilingual filmmaker born and raised in Japan, where she attended Japanese public schools. A graduate of Yale University, she has directed and produced five films about art and the relationship between Japan and the U.S. including Things Left Behind, a film about the transformative power of Ishiuchi Miyako’s “hiroshima” photographs. Linda’s most recent film, Edo Avant Garde, reveals how Japanese artists innovated many techniques of “modern art” in the 17th and 18th century.

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Oliver Raymond Barker. Oliver Raymond Barker works with the mechanics and alchemy of photography to make images, objects and structures that expand upon what photography is and can be. Working predominantly with alternative analogue techniques he uses photography as a tool to uncover imagined narratives & unseen processes, framed by his interest in culture, ecology and spirituality. His first book Trinity has recently been published by the award winning photo book publisher Loose Joints. https://oliverraymondbarker.co.uk https://loosejoints.biz/collections/current-titles/products/trinity (Trinity book) @oliverraymondbarker (Instagram) Mentions by Oliver Raymond Barker in this episode included: Robert MacFarlane (writer) and his books such as Landmarks and Underlay The Dark Mountain Project: https://dark-mountain.net Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography, and exhibition (with publication) held at the V&A, London in 2010-11 and organised by Martin Barnes Episode music by Dom mino'

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Kirsty Mackay. Kirsty Mackay is a documentary photographer, activist and filmmaker. Her research-led documentary practice highlights social issues surrounding gender, class and discrimination. She has an MA in Documentary photography from University of South Wales, Newport. Her current book project The Fish That Never Swam, considers class and discrimination against working-class people. Combining first-person narratives with photographs, it takes Glasgow as a case study, looking at the root causes of the city’s poor health outcomes and lower life expectancy. Examining the relationship between the environment, government policy, historical trauma, and public health. It shifts the emphasis from individual life style choices to the effects that political policies have on our bodies. It will be published as a book in 2021. Her work has been exhibited internationally, most recently in the Facing Britain group show, an observation of British Documentary Photography since the 60’s alongside works by Martin Parr, Anna Fox & David Hurn, Museum Goch, Germany. @kirstygmackay (Instagram) www.kirstymackay.com Episode music by Dom mino'

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Ada Trillo. Ada Trillo is a Philadelphia-based photographer. Born and raised in the U.S/ Mexican border region of Juarez and El Paso, her work focuses on sex trafficking, climate and violence-related international migration, and long-standing barriers of race and class. Her projects have been featured in international publications including The Guardian, Vogue, Smithsonian Magazine, and Mother Jones. Trillo’s work is held in the Library of Congress, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and other institutional and private collections. Her many awards include a First Place in the Tokyo International Foto Awards (2019), a British Journal of Photography Female In Focus Best Series Award and The Me & Eve Grant from the Center of Photographic Arts in Santa Fe (2020). Trillo’s images have been exhibited in the US, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, England, France, and Germany. She holds degrees from the Istituto Marangoni in Milan, and Drexel University in Philadelphia. In 2021 she was accepted into Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism in the International Center of Photography in New York. To enquire about making a financial donation to the aid initiative in Ukraine that Ada mentions in the episode, please contact: [email protected] Ada has also recommended that donations are made to The Red Cross. @adatrillophotography (Instagram) www.adatrillo.com Episode music by Dom mino'

Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Oana Stanciu. Oana Stanciu is a visual artist from Romania, living and working in Edinburgh. Her work combines performance, photography and moving image to create unnatural and subtly distorted self-portraits. As a student, she began experimenting with alter-egos and this has informed much of her work since. She merges her body with different objects and environments, improvising scenes and transforming herself into unusual characters and creatures. Her work features black and white photographs, sometimes accompanied by moving image to help bring these characters to life. She usually works with found object but more recently has started experimenting with sculpture and ceramics as well. Stanciu's work has received several awards including the RSA Morton Award 2021, Ingleby Award, Latimer Award, and the Meyer Oppenheim Award, and in 2019 she received one of the Royal Scottish Academy’s RSA Residencies for Scotland.  Her work has been exhibited in Edinburgh at the Ingleby Gallery and the Royal Scottish Academy, as well as in Romania, Norway and other cities in the UK. www.oanastanciu.com @oana.asta (Instagram) Episode music by Dom mino'