PhotoPhone

Jesse Alexander and Clare Bottomley
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  • Visual Arts

Jesse Alexander and Clare Bottomley explore photography within higher education. In conversation with colleagues, recent graduates and other professionals, they seek to address the pertinent issues that concern those involved in learning, teaching, or just curious about photography education. https://www.jessealexander.co.uk https://clarebottomley.co.uk

  1. 10h ago

    The Hustle no.2: Serena Brown

    Clare and Jesse continue their mini series – The Hustle – with Serena Brown, talking to photographers about how they have gone about finding commissions and generally navigating the murky waters of professional photography. Serena is a photographer based in London. She studied on the BA Photography programme at Falmouth and graduated in 2018. Within 6 months of getting her degree, Serena had managed to secure a photoshoot with Nike, and since then has worked on commercial and editorial assignments for similarly well-known brands, and magazines like Rolling Stone, the Face and the Wall Street Journal.  In 2023 a photograph of her sister taken at her grandmother’s house in Ghana was in the last 5 finalists of the Taylor Wessing portrait prize. This resulted in receiving the inaugural commission from the National Portrait Gallery that required her to photograph someone of historical significance to be accessioned to the gallery’s permanent collection. Serena chose to photograph fellow Londoner Dr. Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah CBE, who began campaigning against air pollution following the tragic death of her daughter, Ella in 2013. As a result of Rosamund’s work, in 2020 the coroner amended Ella’s death certificate to include air pollution as a cause of death, making Ella’s the first recorded death – worldwide –inked to air pollution.    You can read about the commission on the NPG’s website, and watch a short film of the shoot on Serena’s website. You can also read more about Ella and her legacy here. https://www.serenabrown.co/ @_serenabrown PLEASE BE ADVISED: Unfortunately we experienced some technical issues that we weren’t aware of at the time of the interview, so the recording is a bit glitchy in places – mostly at the beginning. We are disappointed about this but ask listeners to bear with us and we promise to do better next time.

    The Hustle no.2: Serena Brown

  2. Oct 12

    The Hustle no.1: Robert Darch

    Jesse and Clare welcome Robert Darch for the first of a micro-series they are loosely calling ‘The Hustle’ where they talk to photographers about how they’ve navigated the often opaque territory of professional photography: how they’ve gone about making contacts, getting assignments, and ultimately finding ways of supporting the pursuit of the work that they really want to make. Robert Darch is a graduate of the University of Wales, Newport and Plymouth University, where he completed his postgraduate studies in Photography. His work explores themes such as rural identity, memory, imagined futures, and psychological states, drawing from his own experience to create narratives that help contextualise a personal response to place.  Robert is the author of three very successful photobooks; The Moor, Vale, and The Island, and has featured in Facing Britain, a touring retrospective of the last sixty years of British Documentary Photography and included in Another Country: British Documentary Photography since 1945, by Gerry Badger.  Robert also works on editorial assignments for the Guardian, Sunday Times and the Financial Times, and on long-term commissions for Beaford and the Devon Wildlife Trust. Robert also works on the BA(Hons) Photography (online) programme at Falmouth University. See Robert’s work, or connect at: https://www.robertdarch.com/ @RobertDarch Photo: Tavis Amosford

    The Hustle no.1: Robert Darch

  3. Apr 23

    Social Work

    Jesse and Clare talk to Linda Jarrett and Justin Quinnell about their creative practices, both of which involve alternative processes and working with communities.  Justin Quinnell is an artist and educator based in Bristol and Linda Jarrett is an artist based in New Zealand. They talk about the value of analogue and alternative photographic processes and the greater sense of community that these can come with. They discuss how alternative processes can  communicate ideas to new audiences and are remarkable tools for learning. See their work, or connect via: ⁠@justin_quinnell⁠ ⁠https://www.pinholephotography.org/⁠ ⁠@lindajarrettphotography⁠ ⁠https://lindajarrett.com⁠ If you have and questions, or themes, that you’d like Jesse and Clare to discuss in an episode, please get in touch or leave a comment.  Thank you for listening!

    Social Work

  4. Mar 3

    Play!

    "Play is the highest form of research." -Albert Einstein. Clare and Jesse talk to George Bull and Michal Iwanowski about photography and 'play'. They ask how play has featured in their education and creative practices, and discuss their experiences of students' willingness (or not as the case may be) to play, experiment, take creative risks and get things 'wrong'. George Bull is a photographer and lecturer in photography at Henley College in Berkshire and completed the MA Photography (online) programme at Falmouth University in 2025. https://www.georgecbull.com @George_C_Bull Michal Iwanowski is an artist and lecturer in photography at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He has exhibited widely and his work is in numerous collections. His project 'Go Home Polish' which explores his identity in a post-Brexit climate was first published as a photobook and will be exhibited at Y Storiel in Bangor on March 20th, to mark the 10th anniversary of Brexit referendum. https://www.michaliwanowski.com @MichalIwanowski Thank you also to Joe Costigan @CostiganJoe for the playful artwork! (Sorry we ever doubted the wisdom of using a fisheye lens for a portrait!)

    Play!

  5. Jan 30

    Politics in the Classroom

    Join by Dr. Catarina Fontoura, Course Leader for BA(Hons) Photography (online) at Falmouth University, Jesse and Clare discuss the challenges of teaching a subject that is steeped in politics, in an unprecedented time of polarised viewpoints.

    Politics in the Classroom

  6. 09/17/2025

    "Opportunities"

    Clare and Jesse explore the idea of graduate “opportunities” such as prizes, awards and other ways to get your work noticed. They ask what best practice looks like, in terms of organisations running such schemes, and to what extent such things exploit new graduates trying to get started in the creative industries.  Helping them navigate this are Siân Addicott, Director of Ffotogallery - the photography development agency for Wales, and Philippa James - photographer, Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes, and graduate of the MA Photography programme at Falmouth University. Siân mentions Ffotogallery’s annual ‘Ffocws’ exhibition and mentorship scheme for recent graduates as well as those who are entering the industry through other routes. Philippa talks about various activities, including her experience as a finalist for the National Portrait Gallery’s Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize.   https://www.ffotogallery.org https://philippajames.net

    "Opportunities"

  7. 07/16/2025

    Returning to Study

    Jesse and Clare talk to Michelle Sank and Geoffrey Bird, both educators and photographers, about their experiences of returning to study photography at postgraduate level as 'mature students'. Michelle is a celebrated documentary photographer and environmental portraitist, and Lecturer on the MA Photography (online) programme at Falmouth University. Geoffrey Bird is a photographer and teacher at the Vancouver British Columbia Institute of Technology, and graduate of the Falmouth MA. The episode discusses the challenges that getting back to study after an extended period of time can bring, and also asks what maturity brings to a cohort of students, and a creative practice more generally. @Sank_Michelle @Geoffrey_Brid PhotoPhone theme tune by @MichaelJamesUK Portrait by @CostiganJoe Thank you so much, Alan Pelz-Sharpe for giving us this topic to discuss! If you have a topic you'd like Clare and Jesse to explore in an episode, please add a comment here, or use this form.

    Returning to Study

  8. 04/11/2025

    Autobiographies

    Jesse and Clare talk to Haley Morris-Cafiero @hmorriscafieroand Dawn Rodgers  @dawn_s_rodgers about ‘autobiographical’ approaches. Or, in other words, putting yourself literally or emotionally in the picture. This episode discusses Haley and Dawn’s creative approaches as photographic practitioners and how, as educators, we should go about supporting students who make work in these ways. https://www.haleymorriscafiero.comhttps://www.dawnrodgers.co.uk/shop-1/p/sorrow

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About

Jesse Alexander and Clare Bottomley explore photography within higher education. In conversation with colleagues, recent graduates and other professionals, they seek to address the pertinent issues that concern those involved in learning, teaching, or just curious about photography education. https://www.jessealexander.co.uk https://clarebottomley.co.uk

Information

  • Creator
    Jesse Alexander and Clare Bottomley
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jesse Alexander and Clare Bottomley
  • Show Website
    PhotoPhone

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