The Sound of Photography is a radio programme hosted by Frank Watson on Resonance 104.4fm and is also available online at www.resonancefm.com
You will find here an archive of the weekly programmes that revolve around a guest photographer, curator, writer and others associated with photography. There is also a mix of music associated with themes of each show. The show returns in Autumn 2025.
Frank Watson is also a practising photographer. For further information visit www.frankwatsonphotography.com

Jenny Lewis
Frank Watson’s guest on The Sound of Photography is Jenny Lewis. Jenny is a portrait photographer and her work is rooted in Hackney.She has published 3 monographs: One Day Young, Hackney Studios and One Hundred Years. Jenny has exhibited nationally and internationally including The National Portrait Gallery, The Open Eye Gallery and Photo 22 in Melbourne. Her work has been collected by The National Portrait Gallery,The Wellcome Institute and The Pallant House Collection. See : www.jennylewis.net

Jenny Lewis

Mandy Williams
Frank Watson’s guest on The Sound of Photography is Mandy Williams.Mandy is a London based artist working with photography and video. After working and exhibiting work in Canada she returned to London in 2021. There she did an M.A. in Photography. Her work is concerned with issues around perceptions of landscape. Mandy has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is held in public collections including University of Arts, London, Canadian Musueum of Contemporary Photography,Ottawa and UK Parliament Art Collection. www.mandywilliams.com

Mandy Williams

James Hyman
Frank Watson’s guest on The Sound of Photography is James Hyman. James is the Director of The Centre of British Photography. He will be talking about his early interest in photography and collecting British photographers’ work. He will reflect on the setting up of The Centre with his wife, Claire in Jermyn St., London. He will also speak about the exhibitions, grants and mentoring that has been part of The Centre. http://www.britishphotography.org

James Hyman

Gareth Gardner
Frank Watson’s guest on The Sound of Photography is Gareth Gardner. Gareth is a photographer, journalist, gallerist and curator. He specializes in Architecture and the Built Environment. He works with architects, designers,P.R consultants and public organisations. In 2019 he opened the Gareth Gardner Gallery in Deptford . Recent projects include Route Book based on Ian Nairn’s travels in England in the 1950’s. More recently he has curated On the Hedge at the RHS, Wisley, Surrey. A show about hedges and topiary. See www.garethgardner.com

Gareth Gardner

Zed Nelson
This week’s guest on The Sound of Photography is Zed Nelson. Zed is a documentary photographer and filmmaker based in London. Zed is an internationally known for his long term projects that explore contemporary society. He has published four books; Gun Nation, Love Me, A Portrait Of Hackney and his most recent The Anthropocene Illusion. He has exhibited worldwide including one man shows in London, Stockholm and New York.

Zed Nelson

Tom Hunter and Zelda Cheatle
This week on The Sound of Photography the guests are Zelda Cheatle and Tom Hunter. They will discuss this year’s East London Photomonth Festival and run through the many exhibitions and events happening during Photomonth (2nd October- 3rd November 2025). Artists such as Joy Gregory, Zed Nelson, Arthur Tress, Angela Tress, Angela Chalmers, Wolfgang Tillmans, Tom Hunter and Frank Watson will be part of the festival which also includes talks, workshops and a symposium on the theme of Longing.

Tom Hunter and Zelda Cheatle

James Berrington
Frank Watson’s guest is James Berrington. James is an artist whose practice involves photography, printmaking, sound and moving image.
He has exhibited widely including being selected for Bloomsbury New Contemporaries in 2016.His work has been collected for the UCL East Public Art Collection. Before becoming an artist James was a National Policy Expert in Social Housing.
The show will consider mental health and the role of photography and The Panacea Society, a group of millenarian women who set up their own religious group.
His website: www.jamesberrington.co.uk

James Berrington

Daniel Homer
Frank Watson’s guest is Daniel Homer. Dan is a film cameraman who has subsequently sidestepped into photography. His recent book ‘Route de la Belle Etoile’ is published by Gost (2024).
The book looks at the contribution of amateur astronomers to discoveries in the world of Astronomy. See website: www.danielstephenhomer.com.
The show will discuss the relationship of photography and astronomy.

Daniel Homer

Mark Sealy
My guest on The Sound of Photography is Mark Sealy.
Mark is Director of The Autograph Gallery and Professor of Photography – Rights and Representation at the University of the Arts, London College of Communication.
He is also a Curator and Cultural Historian. As an author, his publications include Decolonising The Camera: Photography in Racial Time (2019) and Photography:Race, Rights and Representation (2022)

Mark Sealy

Gerry Badger
Frank Watson’s guest is Gerry Badger.Gerry is a Photographer, Architect and Critic.
In 2007 he published The Genius of Photography television series. In 2010 he published The Pleasures of Good Photography, an anthology of essays. He also coauthored The Photobook: A History Vol.1,2 & 3 with Martin Parr. Gerry will speak about his latest publication Best Face Forward: Some Thoughts on The Portrait Photograph published by Prestel (2024).

Gerry Badger

Frank Watson
This episode of The Sound of Photography is devoted to music I have chosen in response to the guests having the freedom to choose their selections.(including Tortoise Mambo).

Frank Watson

Liz Wells
The guest this week on The Sound of Photography is Liz Wells. Liz is an independent writer and curator. She is also an Emeritus Professor in Photographic Culture at the University of Plymouth.Her publications include Photography, Curation and Criticism: An Anthology (Routledge, 2022) and Land Matters: Landscape, Photography, Culture and Identity (Routledge, republished 2021).
Here recent curatorial work has included Sea, Sand and Soil – Plastics in Our Environment at a Festival in China, and Seedscapes : Future Proofing Nature, a touring exhibition in Britain 2020/1.
You can find her work at http://www.lizwellswriter-curator.co.uk

Liz Wells

Peter Kennard
This week’s guest on the Sound of Photography is Peter Kennard. For the last 50 years Peter has been Britain’s leading and most prominent political artist. He is renowned for his reactionary photomontages attacking political systems, capitalist greed, war mongering countries around the world and more recently environmental catastrophe as the world begins to disintegrate from global warming and pollution.His work has appeared in national newspapers, on banners at protest marches and posters that have become part of the urban fabric.
He has also been a Professor of Political Art at the Royal College of Art. See his website for a range of publications of his work.
Peter is currently showing a retrospective of his projects over the past 50 years entitled Archive of Dissent at the Whitechapel Gallery, London.
You can view his work at www.peterkennard.com

Peter Kennard

Chris Dorley Brown
This week’s guest on the Sound of Photography is Chris Dorley Brown.Chris is known for his work on the London Borough of Hackney with particular emphasis on the street culture of the borough as well as its hospitals, tower blocks and local industries.
He has worked with the BBC, The Museum of London and the Wellcome Institute.
Chris has published numerous books with Hoxton Mini Press, both with his own work and the archives of other local photographers.
His latest book A History of the East End was recently published by Nouveau Palais.
His website: www.modrex.com

Chris Dorley Brown

Derek Ridgers
My guest this week on The Sound of Photography is Derek Ridgers.
Derek is a music, fashion and advertising photographer. He is particularly known for his work on club and street photography during the 1970/80’s, photographing Punks, Skinheads and New Romantics. He has worked in the past with The N.M.E., The Face and Loaded magazine as well as many of the daily newspapers and fashion magazines. He has also published numerous books including this year ‘The London Youth Portraits, 1978-87.’
His work can be found on http://www.derekridgers.com

Derek Ridgers

Jenny Mathews
The start of the new series of The Sound of Photography. The guest this week is Jenny Matthews.
Jenny is an internationally acclaimed documentary photographer and filmmaker working on issues of dispossession and human rights with particular emphasis on the lives of women and girls. Her book ‘Women and War’ chronicling 20 years of women worldwide affected by conflict was published in 2003 and she is presently working on a second volume. Jenny is also working on documenting her community in Hackney. Since 2020 she has been making a series of photo quilts comprising of edited photographs from her archive.
Website: http://www.panos.co.uk

Jenny Mathews

Arteh Odjidja
Frank Watson’s guest on the Sound of Photography is Arteh Odjidja. Arteh is an award winning portrait and fashion photographer. He has exhibited extensively in both the U.S. and the U.K. His projects include working with fashion designers Ozwald Boateng and Paul Smith. He has worked in Nigeria and Sierra Leone on social, political and environmental issues. In 2022 he published his book ‘Fear and Dreams’ that tells the stories through image and text of immigrants who have uprooted their lives and established new careers and identities with the cultural pressures that come with rebuilding themselves. Website: www.arteh.co.uk

Arteh Odjidja

Daniel Meadows
Frank Watson’s guest on the The Sound of Photography is Daniel Meadows. Daniel is a photographer and documentarist. He is best known for his work ‘The Free Photographic Omnibus Project’ and the portraits taken whilst driving his bus around England in the 1970s. He has an extensive archive of documentary projects about ordinary people’s lives.www.danielmeadows.co.uk. In 2019 The Bodleian Library acquired his entire archive. Daniel has also had a career in teaching photography and journalism. This included teaching a course on Digital Storytelling and Photography. The show will focus on Daniel’s many sound recordings made during his career.

Daniel Meadows

Charlotte Schepke
Frank Watson’s guest is Charlotte Schepke. Charlotte is the Director and Curator of The Large Glass Gallery in London. She will speak about her ideas behind the gallery and the shows she has curated. She will also talk about the photographic work of Guido Guide and Mark Ruwedel. www.largeglass.co.uk

Charlotte Schepke

Tom Hunter
Frank Watson’s guest is Tom Hunter. Tom is a London based photographer who has exhibited internationally and received many awards for his work. He will speak about his past and present projects in relation to the importance of community and in particular his attachment to Hackney,London. www.tomhunter.org
