Released 24.04.26

The Conversation

British photographer Tom Parker has collaborated on magazine and newspaper stories for over 15 years with Sophy. Since 2016, they’ve also worked on a long-form documentary project covering conflict and wildlife conservation on the African continent, from southern African to South, Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With intimate knowledge of each other’s working practices in the field, Tom is a fitting episode to draw Season Three of the podcast to its close.

They discuss opportunities and crises in Tom’s working life, from when he first set out from London (where he was employed as an investment banker) to find his purpose in Nepal (as a rookie journalist on a left-wing newspaper). Tom speaks to the American photographer Sally Mann’s adage, that “luck, aesthetic luck included, is just the ability to exploit accidents”.

Highlights of the conversation include some to-and-fro about their shared ‘therapist’; the lure of the modern (vs. nostalgia); hanging high over Mumbai in a metal box to take a picture of India’s tallest bridge; and making pictures of open-heart surgery (the patient was awake). He describes sleeping beside a lava lake in the DRC, and the strangeness of social media influencers flocking to the sulphur-spewing Mount Igen in Indonesia.

Bold, confident and controversial, this episode gives access to the work ethic of an extraordinarily talented photographer — this year alone, he’s been nominated for the Wessing Photography Prize, the Prix Pictet for his work in Indonesia, and recently won Best in Show at the AOP Awards for an essay on Modern Day Mongolia — at the same time as being sprinkled by Tom’s rare and attractive self-deprecating humour.

Books discussed:

George Orwell
— Why I Write

W.G. Sebald
— Campo Santo

Bruce Chatwin
— Anatomy of Restlessness

Jason Fulford
— The Photographer’s Playbook: 307 Assignments and Ideas

Films discussed:

Orlando von Einsiedel (Director)
— Virunga