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Hollie Rosa Mateer has just done what no photographer has done before: Win our Photographer of the Year title for the 2nd time (and the 2nd time in a row!). This is an absolutely incredible feat, and is testament to not only Hollie’s talent, but her consistency as well – a truly special achievement.

With an incredible 16 Awards won in the year – 9 Reportage Awards & 7 Story Awards – Hollie deservedly sits on top of our just-announced Top 100 Photographers in the World 2024 list. Congratulations, Hollie, our 2024 This is Reportage Photographer of the Year.

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Honoured to reveal the This is Reportage Storyteller of the Year 2024: Inge Kooiman! With an incredible haul of 9 Story Awards won in the year, Inge sits deservedly on top of our just-revealed Top 25 Storytellers of the Year 2024 list. Many congratulations, Inge; to win a single Story Award is incredibly difficult, so to win 9 in a single year is truly amazing.

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After a bit of a break I’m happy to be back with the Podcast, and talking to the fab Bobbi Barbarich. Bobbi is based in Canada, and as well as being a great documentary wedding and family photographer (we talk about both on the episode today), she is also an educator.

Not only that, but she also manages to find some time to produce her own podcast, the fab Tilt and Shift Photography Business Podcast. I was honoured to be a guest on her Podcast recently, actually (episode #31 if you aren’t sick of the sound of my voice already!), and it’s lovely to be able to return the favour and chat to Bobbi for the TiR Podcast today. We cover so much, including:

why it’s important to look back at how far you’ve come,
intimacy: shooting close, and just how she does that,
a great story about meeting Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins,
why connection/engagement sessions may not always be for you,
the stories behind a couple of her wedding and family images,
hosting her own Podcast, the Tilt and Shift Photography Business Podcast,
why she doesn’t suffer from procrastination and tips for dealing with it yourself,
peanut butter recipes,
and so much more…

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Excited to release the special Doc Day 2024 episode of the Podcast! I once again took a little travel mic to the amazing Doc Day – the one-of-a-kind documentary wedding photography conference created by Annie & Kevin Kheffache – and I had a *brilliant* time, mini-interviewing almost 40 photographers from all over Europe. I spoke to the founders, speakers and attendees alike; thanks so much if I subjected you to my questions and, later in the episode, some slightly tipsy after-party ramblings…! These are the fab people you can hear from on this special episode (in order of appearance):

Alex Benyon, Martin Ellard, Paul Williams, Eve Dunlop, Gavin Jacob Power, Phil Salisbury, Linda Bouritius, Tadhg Nathan, Ryan Devereux, Ronan Palliser, Andy Sharman, Kevin Kheffache, Janina Brocklesby, Marco Teixeira, Ben Lee, Aga Maru, Nathan Walker, Nadine Lotze, Andrew Billington, Dominique Shaw, Liam Shaw, Leonard Walpot, Jay Doherty, Isabelle Hattink, Yves Schepers, Melissa Beckker, Janneke Walpot, Marisa Martins, Ana Backhaus, Annie Kheffache, Tom Beynon, Soven Amatya, Dave McClelland, Oonagh Casey, Pamela Brady & Paul McGinty.

Plus some brilliant singing by John Gillooley!

Tickets are on sale right now for Doc Day 2025 – and at the time of this episode’s release are on early-bird offer; grab one before they sell out.

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Honoured to be joined by our This is Reportage Overall Photographer of the Year for 2023 today: The one and only Hollie Mateer! Not only was Hollie our POTY on our wedding site, but she was also the no.1 UK family photographer on our sister-site, This is Reportage: Family, and we talk about both documentary wedding and family work on today’s episode, including:

the moment she found out she had won Overall Photographer of The Year on TiR,
the story behind her unique ‘Chess’ Reportage Award,
how she captured her ‘Emergency’ Family Award,
why it’s important to not only show the good times when it comes to family photography,
photograping fellow TiR-member Chelsea Cannar’s wedding (and winning a Story Award with it, too!),
how she came to work alongside her husband, the fab Patrick Mateer,
why she loves the food at weddings (both from a hunger and photography perspective),
our Netflix synopsis game,
and so much more…

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