Talking Frames

Rich Gilligan is an acclaimed Irish photographer whose creative practice bridges Dublin and New York. His evocative images focus on skateboarders, subcultures, urban landscapes, and leading figures from art and music. His work has been internationally recognised, with publications including T Magazine from The New York Times and i-D Magazine.

His photography is rooted in real environments and real relationships. While skateboarding appears frequently in his pictures, his real interest lies in the culture that surrounds it: friendship, DIY creativity, community, rebellion, and the way skaters reimagine city space. Many of his images capture quieter reflective moments — empty spots after a session, fragments of conversation, or the textures and atmospheres of the urban landscape.

In this conversation, Rich paints a vivid picture of 1990s Dublin before gentrification, discovering the city through skate culture, and working with Bruce Kelleher on their DIY zine “Killing Time.” He discusses his philosophy of “shoot what you know,” his preference for natural light, and why authenticity matters more than technical perfection.

We also talk about “The First Draft,” his 20-year retrospective at Draíocht Gallery, the accompanying book, community workshops, and the importance of revisiting the places that shaped him. Throughout the episode, Rich reflects on photography as a way to process experience, build relationships, and balance commercial assignments with personal projects, including a growing interest in moving-image work.

A core thread in his practice is the exploration of place and mood. He often photographs peripheral or overlooked spaces — industrial edges, abandoned sites, coastlines, and transitional landscapes. These images move beyond straightforward documentation, evoking youth, identity, and belonging, with light and weather giving the work a cinematic, contemplative quality.

 

Rich Gilligan Website

Rich Gilligan Instagram

Talking Frames Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Song: Drip
Music by: CreatorMix.com

Ekaterina Kutikova Bgantseva is a contemporary photographer working primarily in street photography, based in the Mediterranean city of Alicante, Spain.

She has received numerous awards and recognitions in international photography contests. These include winning the FUJIFILM “Día Mundial de la Fotografía 2025” award, several LensCulture Street Photography Awards Editor’s Picks, being named a top street photographer in the 35AWARDS, plaudits in the Paris International Street Photo Awards, and medals in the Black & White International Photo Awards.

Her work has appeared in various photography publications — including editions of Tokyo Streets and volumes of Photographize — and has been exhibited internationally, with shows such as Tokyo Streets in Tokyo and Calentamiento Global in Alicante.

Founder of the Street Lens Society collective, she reinforces the importance of street photography as an art form and is dedicated to showcasing the best artists in the field.

In this episode Tim and Ekaterina explored Ekaterina’s creative evolution as a photographer, tracing her shift from early conceptual and black-and-white work to her current cinematic approach to street photography. Today, her images focus on people’s emotions and inner worlds, often carrying a sense of mystery shaped through careful post-processing. Ekaterina shared how her artistic family background – a father in music, a mother working in theatre costume design, and a grandfather involved in documentary filmmaking – continues to influence her visual storytelling and drive for constant improvement.

The conversation also touched on authenticity in urban photography. Rather than confining herself to a single genre, Ekaterina enjoys experimentation, and a book by Joshua Jackson helped reignite her passion for photography in her twenties. She prefers spontaneous, unstaged city moments, believing they better capture the magic and unpredictability of urban life.

Tim and Ekaterina discussed photographing different cities, including Rome and her home city of Alicante. She noted how images from the same location can change completely depending on mood, time, and light. While fine art projects often require detailed planning, she finds that street photography thrives on walking, observing, and responding to the environment in real time.

Finally, they discussed inspiration. Ekaterina finds ideas through direct experience of life rather than staying at home, drawing from cinema, Renaissance art, and other photographers. Photography, she said, feels like “second nature” and a form of meditation that changes how she sees the world. While Instagram remains a powerful platform for sharing work, she also values exhibitions, networking, and book publishing as ways for photographers to build an audience.

 

Ekaterina Kutikova website

Ekaterina Kutikova instagram

Talking frames instagram

Laurence Bouchard is a street and urban photographer based in Tokyo, best known for his high-contrast black-and-white images that emphasise geometry, shadow, and silhouette. His work is characterised by strong structural compositions, often reducing complex city scenes into minimalist arrangements of lines, shapes, and negative space. Rather than focusing on overt narrative moments, Laurence’s photographs explore visual order, balance, and rhythm within the urban environment.

Overall, Laurence Bouchard’s photography is less about documenting events and more about seeing the city as a system of shapes, light, and movement. His images invite viewers to pause, slow down, and notice the quiet moments of order that exist within one of the world’s busiest urban environments.

In this episode  Laurence explores his long-term photographic relationship with Tokyo—a city he has called home for over 16 years. Known for his striking monochrome images, Laurence’s work focuses on geometry, shadows, silhouettes, and minimalism, seeking moments of calm and structure within one of the world’s most visually chaotic cities.

Laurence also shares practical insights into his street photography techniques, from using elevated poles to gain unusual perspectives to the psychological side of working in public spaces—reading body language, anticipating movement, and knowing when to wait. Photography, he explains, can feel like both an adrenaline-driven pursuit and a meditative practice, often influenced by music that mirrors the atmosphere of the streets he’s photographing.

The episode also explores the Tokyo street photography community, including the Tokyo Streets collective, which supports photographers through exhibitions, publishing, and collaborative projects. Laurence reflects on how rare negative encounters have been during his years shooting on the streets and how community has helped foster confidence and creative growth.

Photographers mentioned

Lee Chapman

Michael Kistler

Laurence Bouchard Website

Laurence Instagram

Wei Jian Chan is a Singapore-born photographer based in London, best known for his thoughtful black-and-white street photography and his exploration of migration, identity, and belonging. He moved from Singapore to the UK in 2012, and that experience of relocation has become a central thread running through his work.

His photography has been exhibited in various locations in the UK and Europe, and has been acquired to form part of the permanent collection of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Art. His work has also been featured by numerous outlets, including The Guardian, Deutsche Welle, National Geographic, Amateur Photographer, and Leica Camera.

Wei Jian talked about moving from Singapore to the UK in 2012 and how that migration experience became central to his work. Adjusting to a new culture, language style, and pace of life created feelings of uncertainty and displacement. Photography became a way to process those emotions, helping him make sense of belonging and identity in a place that initially felt unfamiliar.

Much of the conversation focused on his street photography practice in London. Wei Jian primarily works in black and white, drawn to how light, shadow, and architectural structure shape the city. He shoots mostly with a 35mm lens and spoke about balancing instinctive reactions on the street with careful pre-visualisation. He also noted that photographers often return to the same areas over time, mentioning places like the West End, South Bank, and Shoreditch.

The interview explored the making of his photobook Journey to the West, a four-year project published by Satanta Books. The book uses street photography as a metaphor for migration, uncertainty, and adaptation. Wei Jian described the intense editing process, reducing tens of thousands of images into a tightly sequenced narrative, and emphasised the importance of the physical book, from paper choice to black pages and spot lamination.

Some Photographers mentioned 

Joshua K Jackson

Andrew Blowers 

Simon King 

Thoms English

Journey to the West book 

Wei Jian Website

Wei Jian Instagram

Talking Frames Instagram

Zula Rabikowska is a London-based documentary photographer, specialising in community-based portraiture and documentary storytelling. She focuses on themes of migration, Eastern Europe, and the LGBTQI+ communities, drawing inspiration from her Polish heritage and upbringing. Through her photography, Zula aims to amplify voices often overlooked, using an intentional approach to explore the complexity of identity and the power of human connection.

She works closely with communities to create intimate portraiture that reflects their stories and experiences. Whether through multimedia, film, digital, or analogue photography, her projects prioritise authenticity and emotional depth. Zula’s collaborative approach to portraiture fosters authentic, empowering representations, using photographic storytelling to amplify diverse human experiences.

Her work has been exhibited internationally and published in prominent outlets. Zula’s accolades include the AOP Talent Award, PDN Award, and the Getty Images Grant. As a recipient of the MEAD Fellowship, she has focused on documenting gender identity in Eastern Europe, bringing attention to often marginalised communities in the region. She has also received the Centre for British Photography Grant and won the Earth Photo Moving Image Award.

 

In this episode Zula’ shares how her  life and work are deeply shaped by her migration from Poland to the UK at age ten. Growing up between two countries and cultures created a sense of rupture and constant negotiation of identity, reflected in her unusual accent and experiences of stereotyping at school. This dual existence became central to her artistic practice, informing her exploration of belonging, displacement, and identity through photography and multimedia work.

Zula’s major projects include Nothing But a Curtain, which explored gender identity across Eastern Europe and is now being published as a sculptural book; her documentation of the Vietnamese diaspora in Poland, tracing historical ties between the two countries; and I Thought You’d Be Gayer, a performance-based exploration of gender identity. Her ethical approach emphasizes trust, consent, and transparency, particularly when working with vulnerable communities. Despite challenges such as difficult travel and the emotional toll of participants’ stories, she continues to push the boundaries of documentary photography, believing that human storytelling will remain vital even in the digital age.

Book Launch 4th December 2025

Photographers and artists mentioned

Laura Pannack

Gem Fletcher

Carolyn Mendelssohn

Marina Abramovich

Madeline Yale Preston

 

Zula Rabikowska website

Zula Instagram

Talking Frames Instagram