#529 "Don't ever lose these pictures"

Today I feature Fran May, a British photographer whose black-and-white work from the 1970s captures a version of Britain that has largely vanished: northern towns, street markets, pubs, kids playing out, and Brick Lane in London. What makes the photographs remarkable is how unforced they feel. Nothing is staged, nothing is trying too hard. They are just honest slices of ordinary life, made by someone who came to England from the wide open spaces of Canada and Hawaii and found something worth documenting in the terraced streets and shop fronts of a country that still had one foot firmly in the post-war years. Fran worked under the mentorship of Bill Brandt, and it shows in the seriousness with which she approached the everyday. There's a touch of street about the show because Valerie Jardin returns for another edition of Teach Me Street. The mailbag is as wonderfully unpredictable as ever: Margaret Ellison in New Zealand writes about losing her way photographically and finding it again through writing; Robin Taylor-Hunt, Maurice Webster and Colin Mayer send postcards from India, Venice and what appears to be a particularly chilly beach in Blackpool, respectively; and Gene Westberg is celebrating our profanity-free zone. We'll remind you of this quarter's photo assignment, and you're invited to join the show for this year's Photowalk meet-up at a country fair to make photographs of people. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond . Links to all guests and features will be on the show page , my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai , giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here .

You can listen to #529 "Don't ever lose these pictures" online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

#529 "Don't ever lose these pictures" is an episode from Photography Daily by Neale James.

This episode is 01:29:57 long.

This episode was published on May 1, 2026.

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